Pre-emptive Requests to INTERPOL: Getting Ahead of a Red Notice Before It Lands

A question we are asked often: is it possible to approach INTERPOL before a Red Notice has been issued? The answer is yes. It is possible to make what is generally referred to as a pre-emptive request, and for individuals with good reason to fear that an improper notice is on the way, it can be the single most useful step they take.

Pre-emptive requests are not formally recognised in INTERPOL’s published procedures. In practice, they use the same application form and supporting material as a request for the deletion of data already on the system. The real difference is timing. A pre-emptive request is made before any notice has been issued and proceeds on a contingent basis: it sets out the grounds on which any future notice should be refused, asks INTERPOL to act on those grounds if a notice or Diffusion already exists, and – if no notice is in place – asks that the submissions be retained on file and that no Red Notice, Diffusion or other notice be issued without them first being considered.

The strategic case for doing this is straightforward. Many Red Notice abuses are foreseeable. Individuals who have claimed asylum, dissidents and journalists, those who have crossed a politically vindictive regime, and those caught up in commercial disputes with state-aligned interests often know perfectly well which prosecution is coming and from where, and that a notice may be alongside. Waiting until a notice lands means waiting until the damage is already done: blocked borders, frozen bank accounts, reputational harm, and – in the most serious cases – detention and extradition proceedings running while the deletion application grinds through. The CCF is heavily backlogged. Applicants are routinely told that a deletion request will take months, and sometimes years, to resolve. None of that time is comfortable.

A pre-emptive request shifts the timing. The submissions are on the file before the notice request is ever made. If a notice is then sought, the applicant’s case is already in front of INTERPOL rather than catching up after the event. In a proper case, that can stop a notice being published at all.

There are limits. INTERPOL operates under strict confidentiality, and an applicant who has lodged a pre-emptive request is not always told whether the submission is being actively considered. Pre-emptive requests are not a guarantee. INTERPOL may decline to retain submissions, or may take the view that a later notice is properly issued despite them. But the downside is genuinely minimal, the cost is modest by comparison with the cost of a published Red Notice, and for clients with a real and reasonable apprehension of a politically motivated request, it is one of the most useful things they can do.

If there is a real prospect of a Red Notice coming over the horizon, the time to act is before it lands.