Interpol Red Notice vs Arrest Warrant — what's the difference?
These two documents are often confused but serve very different purposes. One is issued by a judge or magistrate; the other is a request for cooperation between police forces. A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant — a myth worth putting to rest.
| Interpol Red Notice | Arrest Warrant | |
|---|---|---|
| Issued by | Interpol's General Secretariat, at the request of a member country's National Central Bureau | A national court, magistrate, prosecutor or other judicial authority empowered under domestic law |
| Legal weight | None in itself — it is a request, not an order. No country is obliged to act on it. | Binding within the jurisdiction that issued it. Police must execute it subject to legal safeguards. |
| Geographical reach | Circulated to the 195 other Interpol member countries | Only valid inside the jurisdiction that issued it (though an extradition request can carry it further) |
| Based on | A valid national arrest warrant already existing in the requesting country | Probable cause, a formal indictment, or a judicial order depending on the country |
| Public? | Only when the requesting country consents. Many Red Notices are never published. | Depends on jurisdiction — frequently public once executed, but sealed warrants exist |
In practice
A Red Notice is essentially an international 'be on the lookout' that piggy-backs on an existing national arrest warrant. Without the national warrant, Interpol has nothing to circulate. Conversely, a national arrest warrant does not require a Red Notice to be enforceable — it simply does not travel beyond the borders of its issuing state. When the requesting country wants help locating a person abroad, it asks its National Central Bureau to file a Red Notice on top of the warrant. Even then, the foreign country retains full discretion on whether to detain the person and whether to extradite. In practice, Red Notices trigger provisional arrest in cooperating countries and lead to extradition proceedings, but neither is automatic.