Mr Goffredo Sottile, the Prefect of Turin, Italy meets INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble

The Prefect of Turin, Italy, Goffredo Sottile, visited INTERPOL on 20 December to discuss cooperation on security for the Winter Olympic Games, which will take place in that city from 10-26 February 2006. 

Mr Sottile met with INTERPOL's Secretary General, Ronald K. Noble, and other senior police officials at the General Secretariat in Lyon. He briefed INTERPOL on security arrangements that have already been made for the sites where events will take place. 

There will be a very large international police presence during the Turin Games -- a force of some 9,000 officers. INTERPOL, the world's largest international police organization, will send a liaison team to  Turin and provide an array of operational police services, expertise and technical support to assist in the effort to prevent terrorist attacks and other criminal acts.

The liaison officers in Turin will have direct access to all INTERPOL databases, including records of some almost nine million stolen travel documents, and will be able to obtain this information instantly through INTERPOL's state-of-the-art police communications system, known as I-24/7 . That system links police in INTERPOL's member countries and allows immediate transmission of police data such as fingerprints, images and wanted persons notices.

INTERPOL will give the highest priority to all messages and queries concerning the Turin Olympics during the event. This will coincide with the increased level of security to be put in place by the Italian authorities.

INTERPOL will also offer support by issuing Orange Security Alert Notices for disguised weapons, suspicious packages or new criminal or terrorist modus operandi and analysts have compiled for the Italian authorities a threat assessment on issues related to Olympic security.

INTERPOL offered similar support to organizers of the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens and has also assisted with security for other major sporting events, such as the European Football Championships in Portugal in 2004. INTERPOL is working with German authorities on security aspects of the World Cup football event to be held in Germany in 2006.

INTERPOL was founded in 1923 to foster international police co-operation. It now has 184 member countries on five continents.