Interpol was founded in 1923 in Vienna as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC). After World War II, the agency was renamed Interpol and adopted a new constitution.
ADVERTISEMENTThe head of Interpol on Monday called “transnational organised crime” an epidemic so severe that it constitutes a “global security emergency.”
Secretary General Jürgen Stock made the comments ahead of the 100th anniversary of Interpol on Tuesday, where he promised to announce the 'Vienna Declaration' to tackle the problem.
To combat increasing cross-border crimes, Stock called for “more, not less international cooperation,” pointing towards Interpol’s 19 global databases as a starting point.
"In addition to identifying criminals, our databases can also help identify victims, especially those who cannot speak for themselves," Stock said.
Stock did not specify what exactly the 'Vienna Declaration' consists of but pointed towards the upcoming Interpol meeting this week for more information.
Stock was appointed to the post in 2014 and is beginning his last year in office.
According to the German jurist, Interpol helped identify, locate and arrest more than 10,000 criminals wanted for different crimes in different countries last year.
Stock also said Interpol's databases "help to identify an average of up to 15 victims of child abuse around the world every day".
He explained that last week, through Operation Identify Me - a project to identify 22 deceased women believed to have been murdered - it was possible to recognise the identity of one of the victims. This allowed her family to close the case after 31 years.
Stock said police services in Interpol's 195 member countries search Interpol's data 20 million times a day, or 250 searches per second.
"The criminal landscape we face is more complex and interconnected than ever before," concluded the secretary-general.