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international international

African Union. So, while we are three Special that INTERPOL has a lot in common with
Representatives all together, I’m the only one Coca Cola. Most people in the world have
covering two offices, Vienna and New York. heard of Coca Cola, but very few people
know what it is all about. The same goes for
We have been here in this office since 2004 INTERPOL. Very few people really know
and have been cooperating with the United what we do much less understand the essence
Nations for a long time, going back to 1996 of it.
and even occasionally before that. The
cooperation between the United Nations and There’s a lot of misrepresentation in literature,
INTERPOL has steadily grown closer. It was in crime novels and in films about INTERPOL
not so many years ago that we got a separate officers coming in helicopters and arresting
resolution on this. people – that’s not what INTERPOL does.

INTERPOL’s headquarters is located in Lyon, INTERPOL does many things, but it’s always
France, and has about 1,100 employees. In the member states that take the lead. Very
each of the 195 member countries, there are often, INTERPOL is involved in coordinating
INTERPOL offices called National Central major operations, for example to seize drugs,
Bureaus, and they are in different locations. Here to carry out border controls, and operations
in the United States, it’s part of the Department concerning human trafficking and weapons…
of Justice. So, it’s organized very differently We work together with the member states.
from one country to another. The same applies The core, or capital, of INTERPOL is its 19
to the way the police are organized. databases.
intERPoL 100 years of Connecting police for a safer world

In many countries, you can have federal police, Let me first say that INTERPOL was
then a carbinieri, a polizia nationale, polizia established 100 years ago, in Vienna. This
Interview with de la strada, polizia finanzia, and in addition year we will celebrate its 100th anniversary
odd Reidar Humlegård you have a local police force. So, it can be a on 7 September. Last year, I was here in
New York together with the Norwegian
conglomerate of organizations.
Police Commissioner, Jon Christian Moller,
INTERPOL’s Special Representative to the United Nations Here in the USA, there are 18,000 police negotiating a United Nations Day to mark the
in New York and Vienna districts. In fact, there are as many police value of international police cooperation. We
districts in the United States as there are succeeded, and it will be marked for the first
employees in the Norwegian police. These time this year, on 7 September.
Whenever you talk about the police, images of Justice and now for the last two years he 18,000 police districts encompass everything
from all sorts of TV series and movies come has been based in New York as INTERPOL’s from very small sheriff’s offices with three INTERPOL was established to manage
to mind. You think about murders, muggings, representative to the United Nations. So, now employees to the New York Police District cross-border police co-operation. The most
arrests of all kinds, and you feel more than the floor is yours, Mr Humlegård. with its 50,000 employees. There are also 30 important thing we do is collect, systematize
a little uneasy. The uniform and the overall different federal police organizations such as and share information. Thus, we have 19
look definitely have been designed to impress Could you please tell us a little about the FBI, Homeland Security etc. databases that are very busy, because they
people, and you cannot but wonder if the INTERPOL and what you are doing here? collect everything imaginable: fingerprints,
Special Representative of INTERPOL to the Organizations such as INTERPOL that have INTERPOL is independent of how the police DNA, lost and stolen passports, vehicles,
United Nations, Odd Reidar Humlegård, will observer status at the United Nations have so- are organized locally. You have an office in missing persons… Just to give you an idea of
be like any of the ones we see on the screen. called Special Representatives, unlike United each country, a kind of hub, the National the enormous exchange of information and
Our fears put aside; we meet a friendly man Nations member states who refer to their Central Bureau. When you include all these, how important this is for international police
who receives us warmly. Mr Humlegård diplomatic presence as the Permanent Mission to there are many thousands of people working cooperation, every day there are 20 million
devoted quite a bit of his precious time to the UN have either a Permanent Representative in INTERPOL, but those directly under the searches in these databases, and the response
answering our questions. Before we leave the with the rank of ambassador, or ambassadors. Secretary General working in Lyons number time is 0.5 seconds.
floor to him, however, let us first point out that So, I am officially a Special Representative. about 1,100.
Mr Odd Reidar Humlegård has a long and When you cross borders and the customs
very impressive CV. In brief: he has been the We have three such representatives. Besides What exactly are you doing in INTERPOL officers put your passport into a machine, they
Norwegian National Police Commissioner, myself there is one in Brussels covering the – are you just looking for criminals? are in reality checking if you are wanted or,
a special adviser to the Norwegian Ministry EU and another one in Nairobi covering the
I usually say, when I talk about INTERPOL, in official terms, if there is a “notice” on you.

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