LYON, France – An agreement between INTERPOL and the regional and national French authorities will see the expansion of the world police body’s General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon.
Since moving to Lyon in 1989, the Organization has seen substantial and continuous growth in the number of officers, from an original 350 posts to nearly 1,000 today, making the expansion and modernization of the headquarters essential.
To support the long-term presence of INTERPOL’s General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France has committed to provide EUR 61.2 million in funding, broken down as follows:
- the French State: EUR 43.2 million;
- the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council: EUR 9 million;
- the Greater Lyon area: EUR 9 million;
- the City of Lyon: Contribution of the plot of land, valued at EUR 15.84 million, for a nominal fee of one euro.
In parallel to the extension project, INTERPOL will spend EUR 30 million to refurbish and update the current headquarters building.
Today’s signing by INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza, Fabienne Buccio, Prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and of the Rhône Department, and representatives of the regional and local authorities, follows the formal approval of the agreement by INTERPOL’s Executive Committee during its last session in Marrakech, Morocco, in November 2025.
The procurement process for the main construction contract will be launched shortly, and the expanded headquarters, with a capacity for up to 1,500 officials, is projected to be fully operational by 2031.
Nearly three quarters of INTERPOL’s overall annual expenditure is in France - and of this, 90 per cent goes into the local economy in Lyon. In 2024, INTERPOL’s total expenditure was EUR 162 million globally, which equated to around EUR 110 million towards Lyon’s economy in just one year.
Meetings, seminars and training courses held at INTERPOL’s General Secretariat headquarters also bring thousands of visitors to Lyon each year, in addition to the nearly 1,000 officials living in the Lyon area, who also make a significant contribution to the local economy.
Beyond the General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, INTERPOL’s duty stations around the world include:
- the Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore;
- six Regional Bureaus in Africa and the Americas;
- Special Representative Offices at the African Union in Addis Ababa, the European Union in Brussels, and the United Nations in New York;
- Liaison Offices at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, at Europol in The Hague, and for the Caribbean region in Bridgetown, Barbados.
