What an Interpol Purple Notice Contains
A purple notice circulates information about how offences are committed: methods, objects, devices, and techniques of concealment. It is a professional intelligence product for investigators, and it does not name a person of interest or request any action against anyone.
It is included here because it completes the picture. Understanding that most of the colour system is not about individuals at all is the fastest way to see why the red notice is the outlier — and why almost every question people arrive with is really about that one instrument.
What a purple notice contains
- Purpose
- To share modus operandi, devices, objects and concealment techniques.
- Subject
- Methods and objects, not named individuals.
- Requested action
- None against any person. It is informational.
- Audience
- Investigators in member countries.
- Visibility
- Circulated between bureaux; not published.
The instrument that does concern individuals
A diffusion carries a request from one country directly to others, with lighter review and no publication — the diffusion, a different tool. Where data of any kind is recorded against you, the review procedure is the same regardless of the label it carries: lawyer for Interpol notice cases.
Frequently asked
Can a purple notice name a person?
Not as its subject. It concerns methods and objects.
Why does it exist alongside the other colours?
Because the colour system covers both people and the ways offences are committed. Only some of it concerns individuals at all.
what each notice colour means — and which ones name a person at all.