Interpol Notice Colours Explained
A Red Notice requires an arrest warrant and Interpol compliance review before publication; a Diffusion can be issued by a National Central Bureau without warrant or legal review. Both can lead to detention at borders, but procedural safeguards and transparency differ substantially—learn how to challenge each through the CCF.
Interpol uses a system of colour-coded notices — international requests that let its 196 member countries share alerts and information about people and criminal activity. Each colour has a distinct purpose. The best known is the Red Notice, but there are eight notice types in total, plus a separate mechanism called a diffusion. This guide explains what each one means in plain language.
Interpol notice colours at a glance
| Notice | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Red | Seek the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person pending extradition or similar legal action. |
| Yellow | Help locate missing persons, or identify people unable to identify themselves. |
| Blue | Collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. |
| Black | Seek information on unidentified bodies. |
| Green | Warn about a person’s criminal activities where that person is considered a possible threat to public safety. |
| Orange | Warn of an event, person, object or process representing an imminent threat to public safety. |
| Purple | Share information on criminal methods, objects, devices and concealment techniques. |
| UN Special | Issued for individuals and entities subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions. |
Red Notice
A Red Notice asks law-enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant — Interpol cannot compel any country to arrest anyone — but in practice a Red Notice can lead to detention at borders and serious disruption to travel and banking.
Yellow Notice
A Yellow Notice is used to help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify people who are unable to identify themselves. It is humanitarian rather than criminal in nature.
Blue Notice
A Blue Notice is used to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. It is frequently a precursor to, or accompaniment of, a Red Notice, which is why receiving indirect signs of a Blue Notice is worth taking seriously.
Black Notice
A Black Notice seeks information on unidentified bodies. It is used in the context of disaster-victim identification and unsolved deaths.
Green Notice
A Green Notice provides warnings and intelligence about a person who has committed criminal offences and is considered likely to repeat them in other countries.
Orange Notice
An Orange Notice warns of an event, a person, an object or a process representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety — for example a concealed weapon or a dangerous material.
Purple Notice
A Purple Notice shares information on the methods, objects, devices and concealment techniques used by criminals, helping investigators recognise patterns across borders.
UN Security Council Special Notice
The Interpol–United Nations Security Council Special Notice is issued for individuals and entities that are subject to UN sanctions, such as asset freezes or travel bans.
Notices vs diffusions
A diffusion is a less formal alert that a member country can circulate directly to other countries or to the whole Interpol network, without prior review by the General Secretariat. Diffusions can have a similar practical effect to a Red Notice — including detention — but they are issued more quickly and with less oversight, which is why they are frequently challenged.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Interpol notice colours are there?
There are eight notice types: Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Green, Orange and Purple, plus the Interpol–UN Security Council Special Notice.
Which notice is used to arrest someone?
The Red Notice is the one associated with location and provisional arrest pending extradition. Even so, it is a request, not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act on it under its own laws.
Is a Blue Notice serious?
A Blue Notice itself only gathers information, but it often signals an active investigation and can precede a Red Notice, so it should not be ignored.
Can a notice be challenged or removed?
Yes. A person can ask the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) to review, correct or delete data held about them, including notices and diffusions.
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