What we do

The Bolo Program is a breakthrough initiative leveraging social media, technology, and innovative engagement to encourage citizens like you to be on the lookout for Canada’s most wanted.

The Issue

At any given time, tens of thousands of arrest warrants are outstanding in Canada. Although the vast majority of these warrants are for minor offences, hundreds of them are for major crimes, such as murders, sexual assaults, and crimes against children. Police services always request the public’s assistance for these priority wanted cases, and they count on tips from the public to help them apprehend these dangerous suspects. But too often, these requests from police services simply don’t reach enough people. When was the last time you saw a most wanted notice?

The Bolo Program

New technology and communication channels are revolutionizing everything from politics to shopping. The Bolo Program’s core goal is to use these technologies and channels to support police services in their communication efforts about Canada’s most wanted, so people like you can be on the lookout for these fugitives.

Our Objectives

We want to make our communities safer by encouraging you to be on the lookout. Together, we can do more to:

• contribute to the police efforts in solving major cases
• ensure dangerous fugitives face justice
• bring closure to crime victims
• boost public participation in public safety

Our Name

“BOLO” stands for “be on the lookout.” Bolo is a common law enforcement term designating an individual who’s actively wanted. Just the perfect name for us!

Our Approach

We’re not the police. We’re not Crime Stoppers. We’re the Bolo Program!

The Bolo Program amplifies priority wanted notices for which police services have already requested the public’s assistance. In cooperation with Canadian police services and Crime Stoppers programs, we launch amplification campaigns to reach wider audiences for these notices, on multiple platforms and over extended periods of time, and we offer major financial rewards as incentives for citizens to be on the lookout and submit tips to the authorities. In short, we’re reaching you at the right time, at the right place, and by using the right means to encourage you to be on the lookout.

Our amplification campaigns are 100% free; they don’t cost a dime to Canadian taxpayers and police services. We never interfere with police activities and investigations—rather, we work in close cooperation with police services to develop and deploy our amplification campaigns. And we don’t collect tips; that’s not our job. Instead, we encourage you to submit your tips to the police or Crime Stoppers.

Spark

When we started this project, we realized that this “most wanted” issue had been almost exclusively looked at from a law enforcement perspective. Given our objective to boost public participation in public safety, we decided to tackle this issue from a user perspective. We worked with District 3 Innovation Centre, an award-winning Montreal-based incubator using design thinking methodology, to thoroughly unpack this issue from a user perspective.

A Unique Tool

The result? We came up with Spark, a proprietary engagement engine, custom-built to help meet the objectives of the Bolo Program. Spark tells us what channels are best to use to make sure our amplification campaigns reach you at the right time and right place, so you can be on the lookout and help keep your community safe.

Our Partners

Since our launch in 2018, we have actively cooperated with the following Canadian police services and Crime Stoppers programs:

• RCMP H Division
• Sûreté du Québec (SQ)
• Service de police de l’agglomération de Longueuil (SPAL)
• Sun Youth
• Ottawa Police Service (OPS)
• National Capital Area Crime Stoppers
• Toronto Police Service (TPS)
• Toronto Crime Stoppers
• York Regional Police (YRP)
• Peel Regional Police (PRP)
• Hamilton Police Service (HPS)
• Crime Stoppers Guelph Wellington
• Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS)
• Windsor Police Service (WPS)
• Windsor & Essex County Crime Stoppers
• Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
• Winnipeg Police Service (WPS)
• Regina Police Service (RPS)
• Regina Crime Stoppers
• Saskatoon Police Service (SPS)
• Saskatoon Crime Stoppers
• Calgary Police Service (CPS)
• Calgary Crime Stoppers Association
• Edmonton Police Service (EPS)
• Crime Stoppers Association of Edmonton and Northern Alberta
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Mission Detachment (Mission RCMP)
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Surrey Detachment (Surrey RCMP)
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Coquitlam Detachment (Coquitlam RCMP)
• Vancouver Police Department (VPD)
• Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers
• Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit – British Columbia (CFSEU-BC)
• Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT)
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Federal Serious and Organized Crime (FSOC), British Columbia
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – E Division
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police – M Division
• United States Marshals Service (USMS)

About the Stéphan Crétier Foundation

The Bolo Program is the main activity of the Stéphan Crétier Foundation, a charitable organization established in 2006. The Foundation supports various not-for-profit organizations and has made numerous donations since its creation. Learn more

Stéphan Crétier is the founder, chairman, president and CEO of GardaWorld Security Corporation, a $5 billion full service security provider with over 132,000 dedicated professionals operating in 45 countries around the world. He founded GardaWorld in 1995 with an investment of $25,000 from a second mortgage and grew it to become one of the five largest security providers globally. Today, the company is Canada’s market leader in protective services and pre-board screening services, the largest cash services provider in North America, and one of the leading providers of international risk mitigation services in Africa and the Middle East.