Field Reference
What Is a BOLO Alert?
A plain-language reference on the bulletin officers use to widen a search, and on how it travels between agencies.
Definition
A BOLO alert, short for “Be On the Lookout,” is a law enforcement bulletin describing a person, vehicle, or item officers should watch for, usually tied to a crime, a missing person, or a threat to public safety. Dispatchers and agencies issue BOLOs to widen a search beyond the officers who first learned of it, often across departments and jurisdictions.
Origin and Reach
Who issues a BOLO, and who receives it.
A BOLO can come from a dispatcher, a detective working a case, or command staff. There is no single statutory form. It is an operational message, and it carries whatever an officer needs to recognize the subject on sight: a description, a plate, a direction of travel, and the reason the subject matters.
In everyday use the word also names the act. An agency may describe issuing the bulletin as “putting out a BOLO,” and officers act on it according to the bulletin’s instructions and agency procedures.
Who receives it depends on the recipients and systems included in the distribution. Some BOLOs stay inside a single department. Others are relayed to neighboring agencies, a regional dispatch center, or a state fusion center that redistributes them. BOLOs travel through radio, email, dispatch systems, and interagency networks, and each relay is a separate step.
Distribution
How a BOLO reaches the field.
A BOLO needs an actionable description and distribution to the officers who may encounter its subject. A bulletin that reaches only the officers on one channel, in one department, reaches a fraction of the officers who could make contact.
The See Something Send Something network delivers BOLOs and officer safety warnings as real-time alerts to the handsets of connected officers statewide, across participating departments and jurisdictions. The bulletin is issued once, through the ISX platform, and every connected officer receives it in the same action.
See how the Officer Safety Initiative delivers BOLOs statewide →Before & After
Radio, email, dispatch
The bulletin reaches the recipients on each channel, one distribution step at a time.
Connected network
One action distributes the bulletin to connected officers across participating agencies.
The platform behind it: the ISX platform.
Questions
Common questions about BOLO alerts.
- What does BOLO stand for?
- BOLO stands for “Be On the Lookout.” It is written in capitals and said as a word, “bo-lo.” The term names both the bulletin and the act of issuing one: an agency may describe it as “putting out a BOLO.”
- What is the difference between a BOLO and an APB?
- BOLO means “Be On the Lookout”; APB means “all-points bulletin.” Both describe bulletins used to distribute a description to officers. Whether a department uses one term, the other, or both is a matter of local practice, and terminology, recipients, and approval procedures vary by agency.
- Who can issue a BOLO alert?
- Who may issue a BOLO, and whether approval is required, depends on agency policy. Officers, investigators, supervisors, and dispatch personnel may take part in preparing and distributing it.
- Is a BOLO the same as an AMBER, Silver, or Blue Alert?
- No. AMBER, Silver, and Blue Alerts are public-alert programs with defined activation criteria. AMBER Alerts concern qualifying child abductions; Silver Alert eligibility varies by state; Blue Alerts concern specified incidents involving law enforcement officers. Distribution channels vary by program and jurisdiction. A BOLO is a broader bulletin format written for officers, and one may accompany one of these alerts.
- How fast can a BOLO reach officers in the field?
- Delivery time depends on the distribution system and the recipient’s connectivity. Over radio and email, it depends on who is on the channel and who is checking the inbox. On the See Something Send Something network, a BOLO issued through the ISX platform is delivered as a real-time alert to connected officers’ handsets across participating agencies, in one action.
- Can I report a tip related to a BOLO?
- Yes. If you have seen a person or vehicle that matches a published description and there is no immediate danger, send what you saw through the See Something Send Something app. The tip is routed to your state’s fusion center. If someone is in danger now, call 911.
This page is a general reference. It is not legal advice and does not describe any one agency’s procedure. If you are in an active situation, call 911.
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Take the Next Step
See how statewide BOLO routing works in practice.
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