NCB in Interpol

The organization known to the world as Interpol has sometimes been described as an outfit of chisel-jawed gimlet-eyed crime fighters who put their lives in jeopardy every working hour. Less flatteringly, Interpol has also been described as a huge filing cabinet, stuffed with clerks choking on their own statistics.

As with most generalities, there is some truth in both statements. There are, certainly, some grim battlers of crime to be found working with Interpol. There are, just as surely, those drones shuffling mountains of paper whose cheeks are sallow from indoor life. Consider the charisma of the name alone: INTERPOL, the international police force. Continents leaped in a single bound, oceans crossed in the space of a breath, villains watched by eyes that never sleep. Surprisingly, a lot of it happens almost that way.

Four groups coordinate and direct the activities of Interpol. One of them is the National Central Bureaus, or NCBs, bodies designated by the member nations to serve as their link with Interpol. These are the front-line troops, the action people. IN the United States, the Treasury Department is the National Central Bureau. In the United Kingdom, it is Scotland Yard; the Questura in Italy and the Melbourne City Police in Australia. Because police organization varies from country, the NCBs were established to act as the one special group to handle Interpol chores and unsure maximum cooperation between nations. Each NCB is usually an official government body with police powers if a country has only one central police authority, that body becomes the National Centre Bureau. Of course, any service appointed as an NCB is bound to its nation’s law and authority and retains its national title.

Each NCB is connected by radio to the regional station for its geographic zone. The regional stations are connected to the Central Station in France. The radio network is versatile. Network stations can monitor the Central station or any regional station. Because of this messages can be broadcast to more than one station at a time. A coding system determines the urgency of each message so that those with high priority can be given precedence. Besides, other communication tools, such as radio-teleprinters and phototelegraphy equipment. Permit rapid transfers of fingerprints and photographs. Sometimes ever more advanced technology is employed. When the police all over the world were looking for a Canadian named George Leray, they turned to the Early Bird Satellite. Leray had led his gang on a daring holdup of a Montreal bank and gotten away with $4 million. Scotland Yard broadcast Leray’s photo to the world by satellite. An American who saw the picture in Florida recognized Leray as a man who was living on a yacht in Fort Lauderdale under an assumed name. The police were alerted and arrested Leray.