The General Secretariat operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year thanks to our Command and Coordination Centre, which provides a point of contact for any country needing assistance with an investigation, and operates from offices in Lyon, Buenos Aires and Singapore.
Reflecting the diversity of our membership, around 132 different nationalities are represented at the Secretariat.
INTERPOL is a membership-based organization, and the General Secretariat is the body that coordinates all our policing and administrative activities.
It is run by the Secretary General; currently Valdecy Urquiza of Brazil, who was appointed by the General Assembly in November 2024.
There are around 1,200 staff, one-quarter of whom are law enforcement personnel seconded by their national administration. Staff work in any of the Organization's four languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
The global nature of our work and of our membership means that a global presence is essential for the General Secretariat. It comprises the following:
Lyon headquarters
The headquarters in Lyon coordinates much of the policing expertise and services we provide to member countries. It is also the administrative and logistical centre of the Organization.
INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation
Based in Singapore since 2015, the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation is the centre of our activities in cybercrime, research and development, and capacity building. It also provides an Asian base for the Organization in several crime areas.
INTERPOL regional bureaus
Our six regional bureaus bring together police within a region to share experiences and tackle common crime issues:
- Argentina (Buenos Aires)
- Cameroon (Yaoundé)
- Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan)
- El Salvador (San Salvador)
- Kenya (Nairobi)
- Zimbabwe (Harare)
Representative and liaison offices
We have special representative offices at the African Union in Addis Ababa, the European Union in Brussels and the United Nations in New York.
We also have 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.
This presence enables us to work closely with these entities who share our mission of preventing and combating transnational crime. We also develop joint efforts to enhance regional and global security.
