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Tips & Tricks
Short, practical tips for getting more out of APBnet™. Filter by your role or browse all sections.
25 tips across all roles
Inbox & Notifications
Use the Saved tab as a case folder
Save every bulletin related to an active case so it stays accessible without searching. When the case closes, remove the bulletins to keep Saved clean and focused on what's still active.
Guide: Saving & Finding Bookmarked Bulletins →Switch to daily digest for lower-priority bulletin types
In Notification Preferences, you can set specific bulletin types to batch-deliver once a day instead of pushing an alert for every arrival. Good for types that don't require an immediate response — it reduces interruptions without missing anything.
Guide: Setting Your Notification Preferences →Messages are separate from bulletins
Direct messages from other APBnet users go to the Messages tab, not Received. If a colleague says they sent you something and you don't see it in Received, check Messages.
Guide: Understanding Your Inbox →Bulletins
Copy recipients from a previous bulletin for follow-ups
When sending a follow-up to a bulletin you've already distributed, copy the same distribution from the original instead of rebuilding the map selection. On active cases where you're issuing updates, this saves real time.
Use tag-based delivery for specialized bulletins
Toggle tag-based delivery to narrow your bulletin to users who handle the relevant crime type — fraud, narcotics, ORC. It keeps specialized content out of inboxes where it doesn't belong and focuses attention where it matters.
Guide: Map-Based Distribution Selection →Use Interested / Not Interested — it does more than you think
Marking a bulletin as Interested or Not Interested does three things: organizes your own feed, gives the author aggregated feedback, and helps APBnet automatically suggest better clutter controls for your account over time.
Guide: Interested / Not Interested →Training Opportunity bulletins route differently
A bulletin created as a Training Opportunity goes only to configured POC contacts at each receiving agency — not to all users. This keeps internal training logistics out of field officers' feeds. A Program Admin configures who those contacts are.
Guide: New Bulletin Types Explained →Switch to photo view for a quick visual scan
When browsing bulletins, switch to photo view to see just the images — no text, no metadata. Useful when you're scanning for a face or vehicle across a batch of bulletins and don't want to open each one individually.
Click any bulletin photo to see the full uncropped image
Bulletin photos are cropped for the card view, but clicking any photo shows the full uncropped original. If you need to see what's at the edges of the frame — a partial plate, a background detail, another person — click through before drawing conclusions from the cropped view.
Guide: Using the Photo Crop Editor →Map & Distribution
Distribute to a fleeing suspect's route in seconds
Search the likely escape route, center the map on it, and zoom to cover the corridor. Every agency visible in the map window is included automatically — no list-building required. You can distribute in seconds.
Guide: Map-Based Distribution Selection →What you see is what gets sent to
There's no separate selection step on the distribution map. The agencies visible in the map window at any moment are exactly the agencies your bulletin will reach. Pan and zoom until the coverage looks right, then continue.
Guide: Map-Based Distribution Selection →When in doubt, zoom out
An agency that receives a bulletin it doesn't need is a minor inconvenience. An agency that should have received one but didn't is a real problem. Wider coverage is almost always the right call — especially for fleeing suspects and multi-county patterns.
Map-based distribution and search use the same interaction
Map-based distribution (choosing who gets your bulletin) and map-based search (finding bulletins from a region) both work by navigating the map — pan and zoom to the area, and the system uses what's in view. Learn one and you know both.
Guide: Map-Based Bulletin Search →Search
Use map-based search for geographic lookups
When you need bulletins from a specific area — another jurisdiction, a corridor, a region — navigate the map to cover that area. Bulletins from agencies in your map view appear automatically. No need to know which agencies to search.
Guide: Map-Based Bulletin Search →Search structured fields exactly — partial plates work too
APBnet's search covers structured fields including license plates, names, and case numbers. Search a full plate to find it immediately. Partial plate searches also work — useful when you only caught part of it during an encounter.
Use standard search operators to narrow results fast
Search fields support standard conventions: use AND to require multiple terms, OR to match either, and quotes ("") to search an exact phrase. Example: "red pickup" AND stolen finds bulletins containing that exact phrase tagged as stolen vehicles. These work across text fields and descriptions.
Subscriptions & Local Feed
Use the Local Feed as your start-of-shift briefing
The Feed tab shows bulletins active in your configured jurisdiction automatically — no setup required. Open it first thing each shift for a fast situational awareness check before your day starts.
Guide: Understanding Your Inbox →Set up a plate or person subscription for active cases
If you're working a case tied to a specific plate or person, create a subscription. You'll get notified the moment any matching bulletin enters the system — you don't have to keep checking manually.
Guide: Setting Up Subscriptions →Subscriptions are proactive; the Feed is automatic
The Feed shows what's near you based on your jurisdiction — always on, no setup. Subscriptions notify you when specific criteria match: a plate, a person, a crime type. Use both: the Feed for situational awareness, subscriptions for case-specific alerts.
Guide: Setting Up Subscriptions →Collaboration Groups
Create a group for shift change briefings
Set up a Collaboration Group for each shift and use it as a running briefing log. The outgoing shift leaves notes on what's developing — active BOLOs, ongoing stops, area concerns — and attaches the relevant bulletins directly. The incoming shift opens the group and is immediately briefed without waiting for a verbal handoff.
Use a group to coordinate multi-agency task forces
When working a case across multiple agencies, create a Collaboration Group and invite officers from all involved agencies. Share bulletins, coordinate distribution decisions, and keep case notes in one place that everyone on the task force can access.
Attach bulletins instead of copy-pasting details
When leaving notes in a Collaboration Group, attach the relevant bulletin directly rather than copying out subject details. Recipients get the full structured bulletin — photos, fields, distribution history — not just a summary that may leave something out.
Use the report feature to flag comments that miss the mark
Every comment in a Collaboration Group can be reported. If something is unprofessional, inaccurate, or doesn't meet your agency's standards, report it rather than letting it stand. Reported comments are reviewed — and if a pattern emerges, the user gets directed to support or additional training. It keeps the platform useful and the collaboration professional.
Admin
Configure allowed domains before your first user signs up
Set your agency's allowed email domains in IT Admin settings before inviting anyone. This ensures only accounts with authorized email addresses can register — you won't have to clean up unauthorized accounts after the fact.
Guide: Configuring Allowed Domains & Whitelisting →Use Feature Access to control what each agency can see
Program Admins can enable or disable specific bulletin types and features for their agency. Not every feature needs to be active at every agency. Start narrow and expand as your team gets comfortable with the platform.
Guide: Program Admin: Controlling Feature Access →