A faster, easier way to create and share bulletins, now live.

Bulletins are how investigators get a case in front of the officers who can move it forward. But the way most agencies create and share them hasn’t kept up: PDFs nobody can search, emails that get buried (an emailed bulletin gets opened about 5% of the time), the same bulletin rebuilt in Word over and over, and key details scattered across share drives, roll call briefs, Outlook inboxes, and records systems.

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We built BLTN to fix that. Today, the core of it gets faster: we rebuilt the way you create and share a post, the BLTN version of a bulletin.

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Here’s how it works: 

• Start with what you have. Upload an existing PDF, import an RMS record, or type it in yourself.
• BLTN builds the post. It pulls out the key details and fills in the fields. You review the draft, add photos and video, and publish, all from one screen.
• Share it across the network. Once it’s published and shared, your post will be seen by the officers it's most relevant to, both inside your agency and beyond it. Our system gives you maximum control while SmartLink checks it for connections to cases in other jurisdictions.

The result: less time building bulletins, and more of them seen by the officers who can act on them, in your agency and the ones around you.

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What’s new

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1. Create a post on one screen

Building a bulletin shouldn’t mean copying information into a document, formatting it by hand, and uploading it somewhere else.

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Now you start with the information you already have, and BLTN does the formatting.

• Import. Upload a PDF, import an RMS record, or type it in.
• Let BLTN build the draft. BLTN pulls out people, vehicles, locations, incident numbers, and classifications, and puts each one in the right field.
• Review and publish. Check what BLTN filled in, fix anything that’s off, and publish from the same screen.
• Add media. Attach photos and video, and crop, annotate, or redact images without leaving the post.
• Pick up where you left off. Drafts save automatically as you work.

Data fields follow FBI and NCIC standards, so the details in every post are easier to search and match across agencies.

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2. Share with the right people

Share a post with exactly the people and agencies who need it: inside your department, across the network, or with agencies and partners that aren’t on BLTN yet.

• Control who has access. Limit a post to a small set of users or your entire agency, share it across the BLTN network, or give access to anyone with the link, including officers at agencies that don’t use BLTN.
• Share with specific people and agencies. Add people, agencies, lists, or email addresses, and set access for each. Anyone you add by email can open the post with a guest account, even if their agency isn’t on BLTN.
• Change access anytime. External links are email-verified, and access is live. Change or revoke it, and it takes effect right away, even on links you’ve already sent.

Share a post as widely or as narrowly as the case calls for.

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3. Build and export a custom PDF

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Agencies still email, download, and print bulletins, and that isn’t going away. Now BLTN can build an agency-branded PDF straight from your post. A QR code on the PDF links back to the live post, so anyone holding a printout can check the latest status.

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The PDF editor will roll out agency by agency. If your agency already worked with our team on a custom PDF template, it will keep working. 

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Available October 20

The new create and share workflow rolls out to every BLTN user on October 20. Write the narrative, and BLTN builds the post. Less time in templates means more time on the case, and every post you share gives SmartLink more to check against. SmartLink finds the connection. You make the call.