Category: Security Intelligence

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – INTERPOL plans to create a series of Global Anti-Crime Centres (GACC) to serve as focal points for international law enforcement expertise in investigative techniques to offer increased operational support to member countries.

Built on the organization’s five crime priority areas, public safety and terrorism, financial and high-tech crime, trafficking in human beings, drugs and organized crime and fugitive investigative support, the centres will focus on crimes of global importance, such as use of the internet by terrorists, crimes against children and intellectual property crime.

‘INTERPOL has undergone fundamental changes over the last several years to respond to shifting aspects of transnational crime and terrorism,’ said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

‘The campaign against terrorism and other serious transnational crime requires a more focused, comprehensive and sustained approach, which I believe will be achieved through the Global Anti-Crime Centres.

‘Police officers and analysts working in the centres will be in a unique position to study the crime areas in a global manner to provide a fuller understanding of the various international dimensions to help our National Central Bureaus and member countries’ police services tasked with investigating complex crime cases internationally with limited resources, but under great time pressure.’

The site for the GACC will be in Vaulx-en-Velin, on the eastern side of Lyon, in the centre of the area designated for the Carré de Soie development project. The Greater Lyon Urban Authority has agreed to make a three-hectare site available to INTERPOL, free of charge.

‘The decision to create the Global Anti-Crime Centres here clearly shows our commitment to keep Lyon as INTERPOL’s worldwide hub and to continue working closely with the local and national authorities in France to ensure our facilities remain state of the art,’ said Mr Noble.

‘We are laying out a vision of law enforcement development for the future, what we now need is support from the world community to make it a reality. At our General Assembly, I said that INTERPOL would continue to increase its facilities in Lyon if 50 million euros can be generated to support us. This goal is modest when one considers the global crime threat confronting us all.’

The decision to create the GACC in Lyon, which has been home to the General Secretariat since 1989, was welcomed by the Lyonnais authorities.

‘INTERPOL’s decision to further develop their facilities in Lyon bears witness to the long and fruitful relationship which exists between us,’ said Mr Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and Chairman of the Greater Lyon Urban Authority, who has taken a personal interest in the discussions on this subject over the past year.

‘Already home to the national senior officers’ training school, the national forensic science laboratories and internationally renowned companies and organizations, Lyon is once again demonstrating its determination to continue to act as a focal point in support of public safety and security agencies the world over.

‘The vision of regenerating the Carré de Soie site by the Greater Lyon Urban Authority is one which we hope will be matched not only by INTERPOL, but by other forward thinking organizations,’ added Mr Collomb.

Funded by voluntary contributions by its 186 member countries, the world’s largest police organization operates on an annual budget of just EUR 42 million. A major fundraising initiative is to be launched by INTERPOL in 2007 to raise the additional EUR 50 million required to finance the construction of the GACC.

Source: Interpol (news and events)

7 November 2006

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON – INTERPOL, the world’s largest police organization, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have committed to work together to identify areas for collaboration in combating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport.

The need for stronger and more unified action in tackling the problem of doping was underlined as a key point during the meeting between INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble and WADA Director General, David Howman at the General Secretariat on Monday 2 October.

A global congress on combating doping in sport was among the proposals discussed during the meeting, which would bring together experts from the policing and sporting worlds to develop best practice and inter-agency co-operation at all levels.

‘Doping in sport is not only a crime in the conventional sense of the word, but it is also morally dishonest and harmful at so many levels. From the trainer who convinces a young, impressionable athlete that taking drugs is the only way to win, to record breaking performances which are now questioned by the general public,’ said Secretary General Noble.

‘The deception associated with doping is now spread so far and so wide, that there are some sports where every single individual who breaks a record falls under suspicion.

‘The enormous profits associated with major sporting events for individuals, companies and even countries have made it easy for those who should be acting to turn a blind eye.’

INTERPOL and WADA are to draw up a Memorandum of Understanding to provide a clear framework for co-operation in tackling doping.

‘Many athletes are not aware of the consequences of taking performance enhancing drugs, both legally and physically,’ said Mr Howman.

‘While much has been done during recent years to raise awareness in the sporting world of the damage doping can do, with support from the law enforcement community in identifying and prosecuting the suppliers, I am sure that far more progress can be made.

‘It is important that we take action now, to protect young sportsmen and women from harm, and to protect the integrity of sport itself.’

The need for a co-ordinated and worldwide effort to combat doping in sport was also underlined by the INTERPOL Secretary General.

‘By working with the World Anti-Doping Agency, INTERPOL is clearly showing the world that this is not acceptable, that action will be taken against those who cheat, and that honest athletes can achieve the results they deserve,’ added Mr Noble.

In 2004, INTERPOL hosted the first International Working Group on doping agents, attended by delegates from 16 countries in addition to WADA, the International Olympic Committee and the Council of Europe. The group recognised as essential the need for stronger legislation to deter criminals from what is viewed as a high-profit low-risk crime.

Source: Interpol (news and events)

RIO DE JANEIRO – Delegates at INTERPOL’s 75th General Assembly have approved a series of measures aimed at ensuring police around the world have access to the latest crime-fighting tools to enhance co-operation and effectiveness.

Senior law enforcement officials, including police chiefs from around the world, supported a series of measures at the four-day conference in Rio de Janeiro, including the development of investigations into Internet-related crime and the exchange of information on international criminal networks of human traffickers.

Other key decisions were the approval of the creation of the INTERPOL Anti-Corruption Academy, and recognition of the need to inform other member countries via the INTERPOL General Secretariat whenever there are escapes of suspected or convicted terrorists or other criminals who may pose a danger to police and citizens anywhere in the world.

‘It is clear that we are entering a new phase in the development of our organization,’ said INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi. ‘The tools and technology available to our National Central Bureaus need to be shared with police officers on the frontline so that all law enforcement can benefit from our work and international resources.’

The need to ensure that INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database is populated with regularly updated information to maintain its effectiveness in border control was also recognised as essential by delegates.

‘Technology is being increasingly used by criminals to perpetrate all forms of crime and terrorism, and it is essential that we, as the world’s largest police organization, make greater advances to combat this,’ said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

‘Our services and databases are now available to police at the touch of a button. Officers can instantly check to see if the person they have stopped is a suspected terrorist or a criminal. They can check if a passport has been stolen or establish links with cases anywhere in the world.’

Delegates also welcomed the recent United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing enhanced co-operation with INTERPOL in order to provide UN committees with ‘better tools to fulfil their mandates more effectively’ and called on Secretary General Noble to continue exploring ways of furthering co-operation between the organizations.

INTERPOL last year created a special notice for individuals who are the targets of UN sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. More than 250 of these INTERPOL-UN Notices have already been issued to police around the world.

The applications of Montenegro and San Marino to join INTERPOL were approved by the General Assembly, making them the organization’s 185th and 186th member countries.