INTERPOL, the international organisation that facilitates international police cooperation, released its 2023 Annual Report (“the Report”) in November 2024. The Report highlighted the importance of digital technology and increased cooperation between members to combat changing criminal behaviours and structures.
In the Report’s foreword, Secretary General Jürgen Stock highlighted how advances in technology could be both an opportunity and a threat for law enforcement. His biggest concern, however, was transnational organised crime and how INTERPOL could combat criminal networks that were increasingly fragmenting into cells and diversifying criminal activities into poly-crime activities.
Technology Initiatives
To deal with and respond to changes in the criminal landscape, INTERPOL has developed Project I-CORE, a ten-year program designed to reinforce INTERPOL’s function as a global police hub. The current first phase of the program is focused on improving three initiatives:
- Biometric data access for frontline police;
- International case message exchange; and
- Search and exploitation of information
To improve these initiatives, I-CORE is building out five key systems:
- Nexus: improved management and analysis of operational exchanges
- Biometric Hub: a facial recognition and fingerprint-matching database
- Unified Information Model (UMI): centralised and interlinking databases
- Insight: a data analysis and collaboration platform for cooperating on cross-border cases
- Global Digital Police Identity: the world’s first certified digital identity management system for police officers.
The Power of Data
The Report identified the staggering amount of use INTERPOL’s databases were able to provide member states and other users in 2023:
- 143 million police records were viewed
- 4 billion database searches were undertaken
- 20 million searches were conducted per day
- 231 searches were made each second
As stated in the Report: “each search is a potential breakthrough in a case for law enforcement”.
Tracing and Capturing
2023 was notably the busiest year for the Fugitives Investigation Support (FIS) division in its history, particularly in terms of total operations implemented.
Especially noteworthy was the number of red notices issued in 2023: 12,260 – the largest notice issuance since 2019. Furthermore, the increase in communication and data sharing between member nations resulted in FIS having ten major operations in 2023 which spanned four continents and 19 countries – many of them collaborative efforts that were the result of increased data-sharing between INTERPOL members.
More than a few of these successes are due to the Biometric Hub, which contributed to more than 970 fugitive, suspects, missing persons, and unidentified bodies having been identified using the fingerprint and face records made available through this system.
Cybercrime and Education
In 2023, INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate was able to provide education, training, and professional development in areas concerning “cyber skills, knowledge, and technical capabilities” through cybersecurity industry collaborations, an INTERPOL Global cybercrime conference, and a Digital Training Transformation Strategy that integrates training scenarios using the INTERPOL Metaverse and INTERPOL Virtual Academy mobile classroom kits.
Success Stories
The increased awareness of cybercrimes, mixed with improved databases and a rise in data sharing led to success stories like Operation Syngergia, which involved “more than 50 member countries and 5 private partners in a global operation targeting phishing, malware and ransomware attacks” that successfully detained “over 30 individuals”, identified 70 additional suspects, and also resulted in 70% of more than 1,300 malicious servers being identified and taken down.
Takeaways
Digital evolution and increased cooperation are at the heart of INTERPOL’s 2023 Annual Report. These challenges are being addressed through multiple new programs and tools designed to increase the ease and speed with which data can be shared and accessed, continued cyber training, and an increase in cooperation and collaboration between member states.
