Title
Director, Operational Police Support
Company
ICPO-Interpol
Bio
Michael O’Connnell is the Director for Operational Police Support Directorate, based at INTERPOL, Lyon, France.

He commands a diverse directorate that includes police forensics, police information management, fugitives and 24/7 operational and crisis / major incident support capabilities. He also leads on the INTERPOL Integrated Border Management Task Force, delivering innovative operational response to border security threats, built out of capacity building programmes that lead into successful field operations tackling human smuggling, counter terrorism, narcotics, firearms trafficking and major international event security.

Michael started his policing career in the Metropolitan Police Service in 1988 and served until 2006, rising through the Detective ranks to Detective Chief Inspector. He specialised in major crime and covert policing operations against serious organise crime, with a wealth of diverse expertise having worked in most continents of the world. He has since gone on to serve terms with the National Crime Squad of England and Wales, The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), and is now a serving officer with the National Crime Agency (NCA, UK).

His work has included tackling the international threat from organised crime, human trafficking, criminal finance, corruption, and as the Head of the UK’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) - multilateral investigative support to law enforcement partners across the globe. He is a graduate of the Metropolitan Police Training Academy and other UK national crime agencies in Detective, Covert Policing and Senior Investigating Officer programmes. He has successfully completed the Top European Senior Police Officers Course (TOPSPOC), has professional management qualification from the UK Open University, has written and published a variety of papers on International Policing topics, and a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program with the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM.