Norita: INTERPOL effective tool in local law enforcement

CNMI law enforcement agencies stand to benefit from the Department of Public Safety recently joining 50 other states and U.S. jurisdictions that have liaison offices for the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).

“Having the INTERPOL connection is to me a beneficial. It is an important and effective tool in law enforcement,” said DPS commisioner Claudio Norita yesterday at a press conference.

Norita and Sgt. James Ayuyu of the Commonwealth Ports Authority went to the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL (USNCB) in Washington, D.C. last month where they signed an agreement with INTERPOL.

Norita said the agreement would authorize DPS and Guam Police Department to have direct, immediate access to the INTERPOL database.

“It is information sharing network on criminal activity, criminal information, criminal intelligence,” he said.

The commissioner said INTERPOL has notices on people who are wanted in other countries, notices for seeking information on individuals that might have come from the CNMI going to another country.

He said INTERPOL provides information of offenses, background checks on criminals, missing persons, unidentified dead bodies, and also to warn police, intelligence on criminal activities.

“They have also database of 14 million stolen or lost passports. They also have database of lost or stolen works of art all over the world,” he said.

The commissioner said in the next few months, INTERPOL would ship out to CNMI the necessary hardware and software and security features for DPS to connect on line.

Norita said right now CNMI’s access to INTERPOL is only through South Pacific Intelligence Criminal Unit (SPICUN).

“And what it does is we faxed to SPICUN the request and from SPICUN they will fax to USNCB in D.C. And they will bring it up to France, which is the headquarters for INTERPOL. That takes months. At the time we got information back it is too late, the person has left the CNMI,” he said.

The commissioner said having the signing of the MOU committing to the requirements of the IT and the security, CNMI will be able to have direct and instant access to the information data base.

“And we will also input our own date base in our system so they will be alerted for anybody what we might be needing for of interest to us,” he said.

Norita said INTERPOL will put up a connection, a system and DPS will man it.

For Ayuyu, with INTERPOL creating the fusion center, CPA will be able to access information and share with the officers up at CPA.

With the information received from INTERPOL, Ayuyu said, CPA officers can detain or arrest anybody based on whatever information they got.

“Right now there’s no system in place to identify any potential terrorist or wanted person from any other countries. With the INTERPOL it will make our job a lot easier. So whenever there are passengers coming in and we can plug them in the system. And if they are wanted we can hold and detain them,” he added.

CNMI DPS and Guam PD become the 65th and 66th U.S. departments respectively designated to meet the need to have Interpol liaison offices.

With 186 member countries, INTERPOL is reportedly the world’s largest international police organization. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police cooperation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.