INTERPOL - United States National Central Bureau

INTERPOL Washington Organizational Chart

INTERPOL Washington is the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB) and represents the Attorney General in the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), pursuant to statute and regulation. As such, it serves as the official U.S. point of contact and coordination in INTERPOL's global, police-to-police communications and criminal intelligence network. Its active participation in INTERPOL’s policy-making and governance functions helps protect U.S. law enforcement interests and ensure continued access to, and sharing of, INTERPOL’s criminal investigative intelligence and information.

The USNCB mission includes, but is not limited to, advancing the law enforcement interests of the United States as the official representative to INTERPOL; transmitting information of a criminal justice, humanitarian, or other law enforcement related nature between U.S. and foreign law enforcement authorities, and coordinating and integrating information in investigations of an international nature. A component of the U.S. Department of Justice, the USNCB is co-managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under a memorandum of understanding that reinforces cooperation between the two departments in sharing and exchanging international criminal investigative and humanitarian assistance information. In particular, the memorandum provides for the position of USNCB Director to alternate between appointees from these departments, ensuring that each department is vested in the mission of the USNCB.

As a National Central Bureau (NCB), the USNCB is authorized to access and utilize “I-24/7,” INTERPOL’s encrypted virtual private network (VPN). I-24/7 encompasses INTERPOL’s criminal investigative and analytical databases, and system of Notices and Diffusions, which are requests for international law enforcement assistance and cooperation transmitted between NCBs. Moreover, the USNCB is authorized to extend access to INTERPOL’s global criminal investigative data to all U.S. law enforcement agencies. By strategically leveraging existing national information sharing environments, the USNCB has enabled all U.S. law enforcement agencies to query INTERPOL data at street level, regardless of size, mission, or jurisdiction.

The USNCB has integrated access to INTERPOL data with U.S. immigration and border lookout systems that create a formidable deterrent to the illicit international travel of transnational criminals and terrorists. Implementing these measures in the United States has resulted in developing a proven, effective information sharing and screening model that can potentially be replicated by any INTERPOL member country, and can apply to combating virtually any form of transnational crime or terrorism. To that end, the USNCB is assisting partner countries in Africa and Southeast Asia in implementing its model in accordance with their respective national laws and circumstances, providing a potentially vital defense against the entry or transit of Foreign Terrorist Fighters and other transnational threat actors.

The USNCB provides support 24 hours a day, 365 a year to more than 18,000 local, state, federal, and Tribal law enforcement agencies in the United States and their counterparts in 193 other INTERPOL-member countries seeking assistance in criminal investigations that extend beyond their national borders. USNCB’s exclusive information sharing authorities, capabilities, Transition materials – not for unauthorized redisclosure 58 and services complement, rather than compete with or duplicate, the missions of U.S. law enforcement agencies even though they already have a well-developed international presence.