Red Notice vs Blue Notice — Interpol colours explained
Interpol uses colour-coded notices to signal the purpose of each international police request. Red and Blue are the two most commonly issued. They look similar at first glance but serve opposite intents — one wants the subject arrested, the other wants to know more about them.
| Red Notice | Blue Notice | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Locate and provisionally arrest a wanted person pending extradition | Collect additional information about a person of interest in an investigation |
| Subject status | Wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence | Could be a witness, suspect, victim, or person of interest — not necessarily wanted for arrest |
| Action requested | Detention | Information (identity, location, activities, criminal record) |
| Requires a warrant? | Yes — a valid national arrest warrant must already exist | No warrant needed. Any open criminal investigation can justify one |
| Public extracts? | Often published when consent is given | Rarely public — they are typically investigative and kept confidential |
In practice
A Blue Notice is often the quieter precursor to a Red Notice: investigators use it to build a dossier on a person they can't yet charge. Once a warrant is issued and extradition is sought, a Red Notice may follow. Because Blue Notices are investigative, they are almost never made public, and Interpol's public database on Malandro reflects only the very small subset that has been disclosed. If you're looking at a Blue Notice extract, treat it as a police request for information, not as a statement that the subject is wanted.