When public safety platforms operate in isolation, agencies face duplicate work, missed context, and slower response. This problem can compound when agencies try sharing crime-related information across jurisdictional lines.
In the latest installment of our Better Together series, we sat down with Multitude Insights, the team behind BLTN, a collaboration network designed to help agencies seamlessly share crime bulletins, case information, and more. We spoke with Matt White, co-founder and CEO and Henry Qin, VP of Engineering, about breaking down information silos and the evolving role of AI in public safety.
- If you had to summarize the primary challenge your platform is designed to solve, what would it be?
Bulletins are how agencies already share intelligence, and until recently they were static documents. A PDF gets emailed, skimmed, and buried. It can’t be searched, updated, or connected to any system. “BLTN is a collaboration platform and network for investigations that can link criminal information together with ease,” said Matt White, co-founder and CEO of Multitude Insights. BLTN turns those bulletins into live records: updated in real time as an investigation develops, mapped by location, video and modern media-enabled, and readable by every trusted agency on the network. Putting this data at officers and analysts fingertips improves case solvability and enhances community safety.
White also shared the founding story, which was inspired by a ride-along and a case he saw unfold firsthand, exposing the challenges of legacy information sharing. A crime bulletin attempting to ID a suspect landed in an officer’s email inbox and was quickly discarded (many officers have a bulletins folder they say they’ll get to…someday). When White, a newcomer to the space, took a closer look, he thought it warranted the detective’s attention. After taking the time to read it, the officer was able to identify the suspect on sight. After a few phone calls between agencies later, that same suspect was linked to similar home burglary crimes across three cities in the greater Boston area. “Just because someone moved across a jurisdictional line doesn’t mean the criminal activity stops,” White said. “I thought, there has to be a better way to connect and share information between jurisdictions and help police drive solvability.”
- Can you share an industry story that best illustrates the value of the partnership?
The partnership between Multitude Insights and Mark43 started with a customer request. Boston PD wanted to connect two workflows its officers relied on every day: the incident and case work happening in Mark43, and BLTN’s ability to get that information to the right people fast. That request became the foundation for the integration.
What makes the partnership work is how the two platforms complement each other. “Mark43 is the system of action inside the agency,” White said. “BLTN is the system of action between them.” Mark43 helps agencies turn information into action, from writing reports and advancing cases to making and documenting decisions in the moment. BLTN extends that work across agency boundaries, enabling distribution, collaboration, and cross-jurisdictional pattern detection that can help investigators connect the dots and close cases.
Together, the two eliminate what White calls the “swivel chair effect” of officers pivoting between disconnected systems to do one job. Whether it is a missing person, an unidentified subject, or an attempt to locate, information created in Mark43 reaches officers through BLTN’s network without anyone retyping it.
The value extends past a single agency. “Through our partnership, Mark43 customers have access to our nationwide database of bulletins, unlocking crime information at their fingertips,” White said.
Boston PD tested it first and reported faster distribution across the metro area, more sharing between neighboring agencies, and better situational awareness for officers in the field.
- At Mark43, we believe public safety is a team sport. Does that resonate? Why are partnerships important to your mission and product strategy?
Collaboration is at the heart of Multitude Insights. Its sharing network, BLTN, is designed to serve as a central system where agencies can exchange information and work together more effectively. This foundation makes choosing the right technology partners critical.
White explained, “Partnership is a primary pathway for our business and thankfully Mark43 has been one of our best and earliest partners.”
- What unique value does your partnership with Mark43 create for agencies?
The integration reduces the friction officers and detectives face when sharing critical information across systems. White shared, “A detective working a case in Mark43 can turn that into a regional bulletin and share it on the BLTN network without having to rekey anything. BLTN also helps agencies work together that don’t share the same RMS provider.”
Removing that friction does more than save time. It makes information more likely to be shared in the first place. “With the integration, the distance between having information worth sharing and actually sharing it collapses to zero,” said White.
Henry Qin, VP of Engineering, added that the partnership also modernizes how agencies work with bulletins, which have historically been largely paper and PDF-based. “By digitizing that information, we make it searchable and easier to integrate with digital platforms like Mark43, creating a whole new class of bulletin information.”
- Looking ahead, where do you see AI having the greatest impact on public safety? Are there emerging use cases or trends you believe agencies should be preparing for?
Both White and Qin answer this from a shipped product rather than speculation. BLTN’s SmartLink runs continuously across tens of thousands of bulletins, looking for matches in people, vehicles, locations, and MOs, and alerting investigators when it finds something. As AI becomes more embedded in public safety workflows, both White and Qin see a larger opportunity, helping agencies make sense of growing volumes of information without removing human judgment from the process.
The review step is the part Qin wants agencies to notice. “As datasets grow, successful agencies will need to use AI to surface meaningful insights while recognizing where human intervention needs to happen,” shared Qin. “Finding the right balance between AI and human expertise will be one of the keys to preparing for this next wave.”
White stressed that agencies need to understand where AI-generated information comes from and how conclusions are reached. “A lot of agencies could get burned if they can’t identify where information came from in front of a judge in a courtroom.” Clear data provenance, governance, and audit trails are essential as agencies adopt these tools. BLTN and Mark43 have been built with these principles from the beginning.
- If there’s one takeaway or piece of advice for agencies when they are assessing new vendors or tools, what would it be?
White’s advice to agencies is to “Talk to the sergeant, talk to the officer and see how the tech actually works. Frontline users provide valuable feedback on whether a tool fits into an agency’s day-to-day workflows better than any commander can.”
He added, “Make sure to ask what happens when you leave the vendor. Understand data portability, ownership, export formats, and whether integrations are contractually supported.”
Finally, look beyond whether a vendor simply offers integrations and consider whether collaboration is fundamental to how the company operates. “Does the vendor treat integration as an RFP item, or is it actually something in their bones that they know how to do as a company?”
Closing Thoughts
The Mark43 and Multitude Insights partnership reflects a shared belief that public safety technology works better when systems, data, and people are connected. By reducing barriers to information sharing, the partnership helps agencies get critical information where it needs to go, supporting stronger, faster investigations and safer communities.