INTERPOL liaison offices now in CNMI and GUAM

The CNMI Department of Public Safety and Guam Police Department have joined the 50 states and other U.S. jurisdictions that have liaison offices for the International Criminal Police Organization or INTERPOL.

DPS spokesperson Lei Ogumoro said yesterday that CNMI DPS and Guam Police Department were recently designated official points of contact for INTERPOL matters which affect their jurisdictions.

Guam PD and CNMI DPS become the 65th and 66th U.S. departments respectively designated to meet the need to have Interpol liaison offices.

With 186 member countries, INTERPOL is reportedly the world’s largest international police organization. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police cooperation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.

In a press statement, Ogumoro said the CNMI and Guam join existing offices in each of the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Boston, New York, Chicago, the city and county of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Miami-Dade Country, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle.

“In order to combat the increasing globalization of crime, it is crucial for United States’ state and local police authorities to be able to communicate with, and access information from, their international counterparts,” she said.

Ogumoro said the communication network and database resources of INTERPOL are ideally suited for this purpose.

To address this need, she said, the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL (USNCB), the United States’ official representative to INTERPOL and a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, in coordination with state and local authorities, has established liaison offices.

The USNCB will forward foreign investigative requests that have a nexus within Guam and the NMI to the INTERPOL offices of those jurisdictions.

Ogumoro said conversely, the newly designated INTERPOL offices will channel local requests that require international investigation to the USNCB for transmission to the appropriate INTERPOL member country or countries.

“Additionally, both INTERPOL offices will educate police throughout their jurisdictions of their affiliation with the USNCB and the various ways in which INTERPOL can be of investigative assistance,” she said.