INTERPOL etc. communications between international law enforcement agencies - Essay Example

These law enforcement agencies are to some extent, geographically restricted in their ability to apply law enforcement powers. The LEA may be capable of applying its powers within a nation, for instance, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or within a partition of a country, such as the Australian state's Queensland Police, or, across a group of nations, like global organizations such as the Interpol. These law enforcement agencies that operate across an assemblage of countries help out in law enforcement activities, rather than directly enforcing laws by smoothing the progress in the sharing of information necessary for law enforcement between other enforcement agencies within different countries.

In the forefront of battling international criminal elements is the Interpol. Founded and established in Vienna, Austria in 1923, The International Criminal Police Commission works for the objective of instigating global collaboration of criminal police forces (Deflem, 2000, pp. 601-640). Essentially, the ICPC was instituted as an international cooperative set-up of national police organizations with systems for worldwide telegraphic and radio communications and a journal published on a regular basis which conveys significant information among its member-states.

By 1940, the Commission embodied more than 40 states, which included many known European powers like France, Germany, and Italy as well as some non-European countries, such as Bolivia, Iran, and Cuba. Basically, the International Criminal Police Organization-Interpol is the only worldwide organization of its kind with 177 member nations of which the General Secretariat is located in Lyons, France. The most important task of Interpol is to prop up police forces and the services of its member countries in their effort to thwart crimes and to carry out criminal investigations as competently and successfully as possible.

So as to provide this support to member countries, Interpol conducts all its activities within the following three fundamental functions (UN, 2006, PP. 2-4): Secure international police communications servicesThe essential prerequisite for worldwide police collaboration is to enable police personnel to communicate with each other safely and in real time globally, So as to give the international law enforcement community the best channels of communication, Interpol has crafted and executed a high-tech, global communications structure, commonly dubbed as the I-24/7.

It facilitates the transmission of significant data about individuals and crimes, including photographs, fingerprints and DNA profiles, to its member countries, in a safe method within a matter of seconds. Currently, 183 of its 184 member countries are connected to this system. Operational data services and databases Once law enforcers can communicate globally, they need access to information to aid in their investigations or to take the necessary steps to deter transgressions and felonies. Hence, Interpol developed and maintains an extensive array of global databases, covering major data like names of criminals and suspected individuals, search requests for wanted persons, fingerprints,