INTERPOL Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts used by police authorities in member countries to exchange crime-related information. Different types of Notice serve different purposes, including locating wanted persons, finding missing people, collecting information, warning about public-safety threats and tracing criminal assets.
Notices are published by the INTERPOL General Secretariat at the request of a member country’s National Central Bureau or, in certain cases, an international tribunal or the United Nations. Most Notices are available only to authorised law-enforcement users, although some extracts may be published publicly.
The sections below explain the main types of INTERPOL Notices, their purposes and how they differ.
Interpol Notice Types Compared
INTERPOL uses different Notices for different forms of international police cooperation. A Red Notice may request the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person, while other Notices primarily seek or share information. Diffusions are a separate cooperation mechanism and may also serve different purposes depending on their type.
The legal effect of any Notice or Diffusion depends on INTERPOL’s rules and the national law of the country where action may be taken.
| Notice | Main purpose | Arrest request? | Learn more |
| Red Notice | To seek the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person pending extradition, surrender or similar lawful action. | Yes, it may request provisional arrest. A Red Notice is not itself an international arrest warrant. | Red Notice |
| Yellow Notice | To help locate a missing person or identify a person who is unable to identify themselves. | No | Yellow Notice |
| Blue Notice | To collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. | No | Blue Notice |
| Green Notice | To warn about a person whose criminal activities may represent a possible threat to public safety. | No | Green Notice |
| Orange Notice | To warn about an event, person, object or process representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety. | No | Orange Notice |
| Purple Notice | To seek or provide information about criminal methods, objects, devices and concealment techniques. | No | Purple Notice |
| Black Notice | To seek information that may help identify an unidentified body. | No | Black Notice |
| Silver Notice | To identify and trace criminal assets. It currently operates as a pilot mechanism. | No | Silver Notice |
| INTERPOL–UN Security Council Special Notice | To alert law-enforcement authorities to individuals or entities subject to UN Security Council sanctions. | No automatic arrest request | UN Special Notice |
What Is an INTERPOL Diffusion?
An INTERPOL Diffusion is a separate mechanism for international police cooperation. Unlike a Notice, which is published through the INTERPOL General Secretariat, a Diffusion is circulated directly by a National Central Bureau to all or selected member countries.
Diffusions can serve different purposes, including locating wanted persons, requesting information, finding missing people or sharing warnings. A wanted-person Diffusion may request provisional arrest, but not every Diffusion is an arrest request.
Like Notices, Diffusions must comply with INTERPOL’s Constitution and data-processing rules. Learn more about the INTERPOL Diffusion procedure and its legal effect.
What Is the Legal Effect of an INTERPOL Notice?
An INTERPOL Notice is an international police cooperation tool, not a court judgment. Its legal effect depends on the type of Notice and on the national law of the country where authorities may act on the information.
A Red Notice, for example, may request the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person, but it is not an international arrest warrant. Other Notices primarily serve identification, information-sharing, investigative or public-safety purposes.
All Notices must comply with INTERPOL’s Constitution and Rules on the Processing of Data.
Are INTERPOL Notices Public?
Not all INTERPOL Notices are publicly available. Most Notices are restricted to authorised law-enforcement users.
A public extract may be published when the requesting country wants to alert the public or seek assistance. INTERPOL–United Nations Security Council Special Notices are public.
Therefore, the absence of a person or Notice from INTERPOL’s public website does not necessarily mean that no related data are being processed in INTERPOL’s Information System.
Can an INTERPOL Notice Be Challenged?
Personal data processed through INTERPOL may be subject to access, correction or deletion requests where the applicable requirements are met.
The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) examines requests concerning data processed in INTERPOL’s Information System. The available procedure and legal grounds depend on the type of data and the circumstances of the individual case.