Structure and governance
National Central Bureaus
At the heart of every INTERPOL member country is a National Central Bureau (NCB), linking national police with our global network. It is typically a division of the national police agency or investigation service and serves as the contact point for all INTERPOL activities in the field.
Staffed by highly trained police officers, NCBs are the lifeblood of INTERPOL, contributing to our criminal databases and cooperating together on cross-border investigations, operations and arrests.
Given the cross-border nature of organized crime, NCBs work together increasingly on a regional basis. In all regions of the world, we see our member countries combining resources and expertise in successful interventions against those crime areas that affect them the most – from tackling counterfeit and pirated goods in South America, to illegal soccer gambling in Asia and ivory trafficking in Africa.
In the past decade, NCBs have become more active in shaping INTERPOL's activities and plans. The Heads of NCB Conference, initiated in 2005, provides a unique forum for building relationships, sharing information and working together to find joint solutions to common challenges.
INTERPOL's structure is defined in its Constitution (Article 5)