How does INTERPOL check a Red Notice before publishing it?

The filter is real. So are its limits, and they explain why bad notices are still published.

What the rules require

Article 86 of INTERPOL’s data rules provides for a legal review by the General Secretariat before a Red Notice goes live. The review tests the request against Article 83 — a serious ordinary-law crime, above the penalty threshold, with sufficient judicial data, and not a matter “deriving from private disputes” — and against the Constitution: Article 2’s commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 3’s ban on “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.

Who does it

The task force was created in 2016 and, since 2018, also carries out “continual review of existing Red Notices and Wanted Persons Diffusions” — so a notice that passed in 2019 can be re-examined later. The volume is enormous: 19,568 Red Notices in 2025 alone, each through this gate.

How often it says no

The figures INTERPOL publishes are the best evidence of how the filter works. In 2024 it refused or cancelled 2,462 Red Notices and diffusions; in 2025, 2,550 — 558 of them under Articles 2 or 3, nearly double the 305 of the year before. Thousands of requests a year are so flawed that INTERPOL’s own lawyers reject them — which says something about what member countries send.

The review sees what the requesting country submits. It does not see you.

What it cannot see

This is the limit that matters. The task force reviews a file prepared by the country that wants the arrest: the warrant, the charge, the summary of facts. It does not hear from the person named, cannot investigate whether the “fraud” is a business dispute in disguise, and does not know about an acquittal, a refused extradition or a refugee determination unless INTERPOL’s own files record it. A notice that is lawful on the face of the file can be unlawful in substance — and the front-door review will pass it.

That is why the second filter exists. The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files hears the subject’s side, consults the requesting country, and tests the data again against the same rules. In 2024 it found 60% of the data it examined in deletion requests non-compliant — data that had passed the front door. Only the second filter is yours to use — and an early access request puts your side on file before the first one ever runs.

Related

• Which INTERPOL rules get a Red Notice deleted?
• Can you act before a Red Notice is issued?
• How many Red Notices get refused or deleted?