International police work has grown because of global worries about controlling borders, illegal immigration, the drug trade, money laundering, crimes that use high-tech tools that can cross borders, and terrorism.
A number of non-political law enforcement groups have been set up to help cops work together on a large, international scale. Interpol and Europol are two of these.
Interpol is the biggest police organization in the world. Its major jobs are international police cooperation, controlling crime, and helping law enforcement agencies all over the world.
It was started in 1923, and its headquarters are in Lyon, France. It has seven Regional Bureaus (R.B.s) around the world, and all 194 member states have National Central Bureaus (NCBs).
It keeps records of criminals' fingerprints, DNA samples, and stolen papers in a central database. This is a gold mine for law enforcement, and cops look at Interpol's databases 146 times every second.
The group also sends out notices to member states about people who are missing or wanted. Some of these have been Red Notices for refugees running from countries that are at war.
A Command and Coordination Center is also run by INTERPOL. This centre is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It helps law enforcement officers in the field with emergency support and operational activities, especially in its top crime areas of fugitives, public safety and terrorism, drugs and organized crime, human trafficking, and financial and high-tech crime.
ILEA is an international law enforcement organization that teaches local cops how to stop terrorism, find drugs, spot fake documents, and control borders. The program began in Budapest, Hungary, in 1995. It has since grown to include Bangkok, Thailand, Gaborone, Botswana, and El Salvador. It is run by the FBI, and instructors come from different U.S. organizations.
Supporters of ILEA say that the training gives participating countries a chance to improve their own police work and pushes police around the world to work together. They say that the success of the ILEA is due to foreign police agents working harder and being less corrupt.
Critics are worried that ILEA-South will train military officials from Latin America who might go against Costa Rica's law by not being neutral and might abuse human rights. They want the U.S. to follow the "Leahy Law" and make sure that all groups that get money for ILEA-South go through a screening process by the U.S. Department of State.
The DOJ's main hub for coordinating foreign criminal law enforcement is the Office of Foreign Affairs (OIA). OIA works with both local and international partners to bring fugitives back to face justice, send people to their home countries to serve their sentences and get important evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions around the world.
OIA is a tool that helps build strong cases and makes crooks pay for their actions. Its staff is made up of professionals with a lot of experience. Many of them are former federal and state attorneys. Its teams are experts in a wide range of policy, legislative, and legal issues related to the investigation and prosecution of foreign crimes.
Legal Attaches are FBI agents assigned to countries around the world, where they build relationships with principal law enforcement, intelligence and security services to ensure a prompt and continuous exchange of information. These relationships help protect Americans both abroad and at home.
The International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., is in charge of the Legal Attache programs. The unit also keeps in touch with Interpol, foreign security service officers and police who are stationed in Washington, and national and international law enforcement groups.
The purpose of the Legal Attache program is to help the FBI do what it needs to do about organized crime, international terrorism, and foreign counterintelligence. This is done by setting up and keeping up relationships with the main law enforcement and security services in certain foreign countries. This enables the FBI to meet its responsibilities effectively and expeditiously while ensuring that the host country's national sovereignty is respected.
Typical tasks include coordinating requests for help from the FBI or the host country overseas; conducting investigations with the help of the host government; sharing investigative leads and information; briefing embassy counterparts from other agencies, including law enforcement when necessary and ambassadors; managing country clearances; giving situation reports about cultural protocol; assessing political and security climates; and coordinating victim and human rights issues.
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