INTERPOL Secy General Jürgen Stock speaks to Republic on global security, terrorism & more

With India all set to host the 90th INTERPOL General Assembly in Delhi between October 18 and 22, the inter-governmental organisation's Secretary General Jürgen Stock spoke to Republic Media Network on 'This is Exclusive' at 6 pm, on Thursday, October 6.

In the all-exclusive conversation, Stock broached numerous topics, including how INTERPOL facilitates data-sharing between police services of over a hundred nations, how it enables nations' police forces to work together even if they don't have formal diplomatic ties, how the agency keeps up with the evolving nature of crime, and more. 

INTERPOL's Secretary General speaks to Republic TV

1) How much has INTERPOL achieved since its creation nearly 100 years ago?

Jürgen Stock answered saying, "Our 19 global databases put 126 million records at the fingertips of police around the world. These databases are searched more than 20 million times each day – which equates to around 250 searches per second. We have assisted our member countries locate and arrest tens of thousands of fugitives, and helped identify thousands of child abuse victims. And, importantly, since crimes evolve, we keep an eye on the future through research and development in international crime and trends."

2) How do you plan to tackle the challenges arising out of lack of diplomatic relations between its members?

Jürgen Stock said, "INTERPOL enables police to work directly with their counterparts, even – and especially - between countries which do not have diplomatic relations. Ensuring that INTERPOL’s activities remain in line with our key principles of neutrality and independence is fundamental, and as Secretary General, these are elements I am committed to upholding, as without which international police cooperation could not continue.

Every police officer in the world knows that in our line of work, you never know who holds the next piece of information you need to save the next life, or prevent a terrorist attack. Similarly, any criminal cartel or terrorist network will exploit any gaps in police cooperation, so we cannot afford to have ‘black holes’."

3) Crime of terrorism is outside INTERPOL’s constitutional scope. How does one bridge the gap in order to improve the scope of functioning?

Jürgen Stock said, "In fact, terrorism is one of our three main crime programmes – the other two being cybercrime and organised and emerging crime. Terrorism encompasses a range of complex threats, so INTERPOL’s focus remains on three key areas – identifying suspects, preventing terrorist travel and tracing their finances. This is another reason why our neutrality is essential and why INTERPOL’s role in combating terrorism is enshrined in numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions.

INTERPOL was the first international organisation to develop and implement a military-to-police information exchange model - putting information from conflict zones into the hands of law enforcement officers. We help countries share biometric data on foreign terrorist fighters and other terrorist suspects, as well as conduct checks against our facial recognition system and DNA and fingerprints databases. Our stolen and lost travel documents database helps countries identify individuals attempting to travel on a fake passport for example. And in terms of terrorist financing, we work with a number of bodies such as the Financial Action Taskforce, the Egmont Group, and financial intelligence units to help drive high-level policies and cooperation to counter terrorist financing.

4) What does future policing look like in the wake of new challenges?

Jürgen Stock said, "Today, we are witnessing unprecedented complexity in our criminal threat landscape, added to which, COVID-19 triggered unprecedented opportunistic and predatory criminal behaviour.  Cybercrime stands, without a doubt, as one of the most challenging and fastest-growing criminal threats faced by the international community. The threat is severe, far-reaching, and by definition, borderless.

There are gaps in law enforcement cyber capacity across regions - investigating cybercrime requires specific skills and technology which many countries do not possess. Again, this is where INTERPOL provides assistance – and equally as important – training. By increasing the capacity of our member countries to prevent, detect, investigate and disrupt cybercrimes, we can help protect communities."

5) India has been grappling with the growing number of economic fugitives. How do you think INTERPOL can improve its working with India to help counter this?

Jürgen Stock said, "Our cooperation with India is already extremely strong. What is important to remember, especially with fugitive investigations, is these individuals are actively trying to avoid arrest. This often means fugitives deliberately travel to countries which have no extradition treaty with India or use their illicit gains to hide.

In fact, depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains is a key area for action – especially as less than one per cent of global illicit financial flows are intercepted and recovered. Which of course inversely means that nearly 99 per cent of stolen assets remain in criminal hands. The tracing, seizure and confiscation of criminal assets should be a priority for all countries, and INTERPOL stands ready to provide any and all assistance."

6) India has played an active role in INTERPOL. How do you see the contribution made by India to INTERPOL?

Jürgen Stock said, "A recent example is the successful Operation Garuda, which resulted in the seizure of large amounts of drugs and a significant number of arrests. What is equally as important is that these operations identify further links between organised crime groups, which will no doubt result in more arrests and seizures in the future. And, I was delighted when earlier this year India became the 68th country to connect to our International Child Sexual Exploitation database. This is another demonstration of India’s strong commitment to global law enforcement cooperation and their efforts to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

''These are just two examples of the kind of leadership in law enforcement shown by India and why New Delhi is the ideal location to bring together police chiefs from around the world for our General Assembly."

Watch the full interview here:- 

Image: Republic World