What an Interpol Black Notice Is Used For
A black notice seeks information about unidentified bodies. It is the one instrument in the set that does not concern a living person of interest: it circulates post-mortem data so that a body found in one country can be matched to a missing person reported in another.
It appears here because people searching for it are usually trying to work out what the colour system means as a whole, and because it illustrates the point that colour is not a severity scale. A black notice asks nothing of anyone except assistance in identification.
What a black notice contains
- Purpose
- To seek identification of a body found in a member country.
- Data
- Post-mortem information, including physical description and forensic data.
- Requested action
- Assistance with identification. Nothing is asked of any individual.
- Counterpart
- A yellow notice covers the missing-person side of the same problem.
- Visibility
- Circulated between bureaux; a small number are published.
Where the colours actually differ
Only one instrument in the set asks member countries to locate and provisionally arrest a person, and it is the one most often confused with the others — what an Interpol red notice is. If your concern is an alert recorded against you rather than the notice system in general, that is a different question and a different procedure — our Interpol case team deals with the second.
Frequently asked
Can a black notice concern a living person?
No. It concerns unidentified human remains.
Is a black notice public?
A small number are published to assist identification; most circulate only between national bureaux.
how the notice colours compare — purpose and effect side by side.