Interpol
International Criminal Police Organization (founded 1923)
The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol (UK: IN-tər-pol, US: -pohl; stylized in all caps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. It is the world's largest international police organization. It is headquartered in Lyon, France, with seven regional bureaus worldwide and a National Central Bureau in each of its 196 member states.
The organization today known as Interpol was founded on 7 September 1923 at the close of a five-day International Police Congress in Vienna as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC). It adopted many of its current duties throughout the 1930s. After coming under Nazi control in 1938 following the German annexation of Austria, the agency eventually had its headquarters moved to the same building as the Gestapo in Berlin. The organization remained largely inactive until the end of World War II. In 1956, the ICPC adopted a new constitution and the name Interpol, derived from its telegraphic address used since 1946.
Interpol provides investigative support, expertise and training to law enforcement worldwide, focusing on three major areas of transnational crime: terrorism, cybercrime and organized crime. Its broad mandate covers virtually every kind of crime, including crimes against humanity, child pornography, drug trafficking and production, political corruption, intellectual property infringement, as well as white-collar crime. The agency also facilitates cooperation among national law enforcement institutions through the use of criminal databases, crime information centers, and communications networks.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Interpol” is international Criminal Police Organization (founded 1923). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Interpol, International and Criminal, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “international Criminal Police Organization (founded 1923)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8475. VIAF identifies the subject as 128211548. The Library of Congress control number is n80090100. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1938, 1956 and 1946.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Interpol”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Interpol primary sources, Interpol archive and Interpol research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Interpol”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Interpol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.