English_UK Candidate for INTERPOL Secretary General_Stephen Kavanagh - Flipbook - Page 7
Stephen Kavanagh for INTERPOL Secretary General 2024: Innovation, Impact, Integrity and Inclusivity
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My Vision for a Strong and Influential INTERPOL: Innovation,
Impact, Integrity and Inclusivity
Innovation
INTERPOL must strive for innovation and
continue to modernise by expanding
connectivity, capability, and enabling
operational success to the world’s frontline.
As crime transforms, we must be at the
forefront of developing practical solutions
to support all member countries. I have
a track record of pioneering innovative
approaches across strategic roles; as
a police chief, national strategy lead
and now at INTERPOL. Most recently,
this includes creating INTERPOL’s first
Global Crime Trend Report to strategically
assess the world’s top criminal priorities,
which was a significant change to
how operations were delivered and
aligned for member countries. I have
also developed new global forums like
Financial Action Task Force-INTERPOL
Roundtable Engagement (FIRE), and
expanded analytical capabilities, for
instance, through Project Insight. This
programme allows investigators to cross
match data, for example, between
drug seizures, human traffickers and
bomb-makers. My work developing
biometric capability programmes not
only allows INTERPOL to better manage
fingerprinting, facial images, and DNA
samples, but also to better support
member countries who lack biometric
information management capabilities.
I am determined to bring this kind of
operational strategy to the very fore of
what INTERPOL offers to its members.
Impact
INTERPOL must have sustainable impact
and ‘rise above’ politics, polarisation and
‘perimeter thinking’. Maintaining its politically
neutral lens, and using objective analysis
and evidence to ensure impactful activities
on the ‘highest harm, highest impact’ crime
types, will be vital to INTERPOL’s future.
For instance, I have been committed to
funding increases for core projects in these
crime types, such as Project Stadia (set
up to contribute to policing and security
arrangements for the 2022 FIFA World
Cup in Qatar) and crimes against children.
As Chair of the INTERPOL specialist
conference on crimes against children, and
a Board member of the WeProtect Global
Alliance and Childlight—Global Child Safety
Institute—two organisations that work
against child sexual abuse and exploitation
online, I know how critical INTERPOL’s
work is to make the global connections
that identify offenders and safeguard
the world’s most vulnerable children.
INTERPOL also needs to refocus on
delivering effective and supportive
services from within our core capabilities
in a way that is constantly improving and
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