Interpol

[4444]

I posted this in the 'Ask a Cop' section, but thought I would give it a try over here too.


Has anyone had any experience with Interpol? Any idea of their entry requirements? I know they require former LE experience, but above and beyond that they're pretty vague. I would be very interested in anyone's opinions, stories, or impressions of the organization.

[NSWCop]

To the best of my knowledge, Interpol is NOT a police agency. It is a clearing house for police information. Interpol doesn't arrest, etc. You don't "join" Interpol off the streets. Sworn officers from various agencies make up the organisation, but have no powers of arrest etc, except those confered by their parent agency.

If you are looking to work overseas or internationaly, I suggest you apply for a national agency, depending on where you live.

InterPol, is basically, a fiction...

[Thor]

This is all straight from the Interpol site (http://www.interpol.int):

Selection procedure

1. Detached or seconded officials

Officials who are seconded (paid by their national administrations) or detached (paid by the organization but detached from their national administrations) are not selected directly by the General Secretariat, but put forward by the member countries. Most of these officials are police officers who are assigned to the organization for a period of three to five years.

Vacancy notices are published in the form of circulars and sent to member countries via the National Central Bureaus. The national administrations themselves circulate these vacancy notices and make an initial selection. The applications which are forwarded to the General Secretariat are then carefully examined, and the final choice is made with the aim of ensuring that the successful candidate meets all the requirements of the post in question.

2. Officials under contract (fixed-term or indefinite appointments)

Generally, when a post is to be filled a vacancy notice is posted and applications are accepted from internal as well as external candidates. This may be done by placing advertisements in the press, by making a selection from applications sent in previously and kept on file, and by advertising on the website.

There are three stages to the selection procedure:

* initial selection on the basis of the applicants' CVs
* written tests
* interview, for the short-listed candidates.

Only those candidates who meet all the requirements at each stage of the selection procedure are invited to continue.

General requirements
Applicants must:

* Be nationals of one of the organization's member states;
* Be aged between 18 and 55;
* Have a relevant degree, diploma or appropriate training (for the majority of posts, this should be at university level);
* Have previous relevant professional experience;
* Have an excellent command of English; a good knowledge of French is desirable and sometimes essential for certain posts; some knowledge of the organization's other working languages (Spanish or Arabic) is often necessary;
* Be able to use modern computer technology;
* Be able to adapt to a multicultural and multilingual working environment;
* Have the ability to work as a member of a team.

Main job profiles:

* Processing criminal information: compiling and entering data communicated by the official law enforcement departments, drafting replies to countries, etc.;
* Drafting and publishing notices;
* Crime analysis;
* Language services: one department for each of the official languages (Arabic, English, French, Spanish);
* Legal Counsel's Office;
* Information technology and telecommunications (systems management, research and development);
* Trilingual secretarial services (English, French, Spanish);
* Support services (general services, human resources, finance and accounts, security, document production, etc.).

Place of work: Lyon, France

Interpol General Secretariat is not involved in any way in the recruitment of staff for the National Central Bureaus; such recruitment is the direct responsibility of the member countries' national administrations.

The vast majority of positions for which staff are recruited under contract are sedentary posts with few opportunities to travel. As missions abroad are generally connected with police matters, they are usually carried out by the police officers seconded to the General Secretariat.


Employment conditions

All the staff recruited on contracts exceeding twelve months are bound by the organization's Staff Rules and Regulations, which apply the general principles of international civil service law, and not by French labour law.

Appointments to fixed-term contracts of more than twelve months are subject to a trial period of three months, followed by a probationary period of nine months. After this, if the appointment is confirmed, the person recruited is placed on the organization's salary scales.

The salary scales are divided into twelve grades: Grades 1 and 2 correspond to the positions of Director and to Assistant Director respectively.

For staff recruited to work in Lyon, affiliation to the French social security scheme and to a complementary private insurance scheme is compulsory.

The ICPO - Interpol is affiliated to the French pension system which is in two parts:

1. General state pension scheme; and
2. Complementary pension scheme

Pension payments will only begin once the official reaches the legal age of retirement in France.

The gross salary is subject to social insurance and welfare contributions. The net salary after social insurance and pension contributions represents about 80% of the gross salary. Salaries paid to Interpol staff are not subject to French income tax, but an internal tax is deducted at source. Staff must nevertheless declare their income to the French tax authorities.

Under the terms of Article 57 of the Staff Rules, those officials whose place of residence immediately prior to taking up the post in the organization was outside the country in which his/her duty station is located, will receive a monthly expatriation allowance, the amount of which is calculated according to his/her family situation. Current rates are 616 euro for a single official, 873 euro for an official who is married or living with a common-law spouse, but with no dependent children and 1109 euro for an official with one or more dependent children.


Vacancies are listed on this page. (http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/Recruitment/vacances.asp) (**My input, not Interpol's...**)



Internships

Acceptance of internships is dependent upon the outcome of an administrative enquiry. In addition, an internship agreement, containing provisions for social security cover, work accident cover and personal insurance cover, with the institute at which the student is studying should be provided.

Internships are not remunerated. However, a small monthly allowance of approximately 150 euro is granted to cover various costs incurred by the student during his/her internship.

Given the nature of the organization's activities, very few authorizations for internships are granted. If you wish to apply for an internship, you may do so by writing to the following e-mail address:

Human resources - staff@interpol.int


It's very involved, as you can probably see, but all of the information you should need is above and the rest is located on THIS PAGE (http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/Recruitment/Default.asp).

Good luck with it! :cool:

[JERSEY BUBBA]

4444,

I believe that NSW is on the money here and the US arm of INTERPOL is actually the FBI.

Bubba

[Sleuth]

Last I heard (circa 1997), the National Bureau of INTERPOL for the US was the Secret Service. This may have changed since DHS was formed.

[JERSEY BUBBA]

I just now checked it out. It's the Department of Justice.

Bubba

[PhilipCal]

Interpol is both a treaty and an organization. Quite simply, it provides for the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement agencies of various nations. Most nations are members of Interpol. It is not an international police force, as many think. In the U.S.,the FBI is the agency responsible for interfacing with Interpol. In Canada, it would be the RCMP.

[San Jose BICE]

Actually the interface with Interpol within the US is started with the United States National Central Bureau within the Department of Justice. Of which the Federal Agencies, state agencies are members of.

[Sgt Lobster]

In the UK the National Criminal Intelligence Service/NCIS is the agency responsible for Interpol http://www.ncis.co.uk/

[PeteBroccolo]

PhilipCal is correct - my Force IS Canada's National Central Bureau for INTERPOL, and we DO second personnel to INTERPOL's HQ in Paris. You can think of INTERPOL as NCIC, sort of.

In addition to INTERPOL posting, the RCMP has Liaison Officers posted in Canada's embassies around the world, as well as working in Washington DC. There are also FBI SA posted to Ottawa, Ontario (our national capital) that are LO to the RCMP. The RCMP LO in Berlin is an Inspector who used to be posted here in Weyburn from 1994 to 1996 as the Corporal Commander of this Detachment (hey, Clem!)

[Sgt. Friday]

Has anyone in the United States ever had to use Interpol?

Years ago I used them and lets just put it this way, don't worry about finishing your report anytime soon. It really was a pain in the rearend.

Wondering if Countries abroad have this same problem with Interpol as far as taking forever with returning query information? :confused:

Can't say it was a great expereince, can't say it was a bad experience either. But you better have your data handy when you start working with this division.

Any Investigators who havn't worked with Interpol yet or might be considering it but don't know how to go about it, any larger department with NCIC data base access can log you into the Interpol system. At that time either information can be provided via teletype or an exchane of telephone number will occur. Again have all of your data handy when you start to coresponnd with that agency.;)