Ottawa police suspend Crime Stoppers use after 1.5M-tip data breach

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The Ottawa Police Service said in a news release on Friday, Oct 23, that after learning of the reported breach, it has suspended its use of the Crime Stoppers platform out of an abundance of caution while the situation is reviewed. The service said it is working to better understand the scope and impact of the incident and will continue to assess any potential impacts on police operations.

Police stressed that Crime Stoppers operates independently from the police service and that its reporting platform is not connected to Ottawa police internal systems. Members of the public are now asked to contact police directly to report crimes, suspicious activity or information related to ongoing investigations. Police noted that while they handle personal information under privacy and information-security obligations, direct reporting does not necessarily offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers.

CBC News analyzed a copy of the hacked data and found that more than 1.5 million tips submitted to Crime Stoppers programs across Canada over the past 25 years were compromised, with more than 850,000 of them containing personally identifiable information. CBC could not determine in every instance whether the information belonged to a tipster, a victim or someone accused of a crime.

Beyond Ottawa, police services in Toronto, York Region, Halton Region, Windsor, Kingston, Cornwall and Hamilton in Ontario, as well as Winnipeg, have also paused their use of Crime Stoppers. This site reported Toronto's pause on Oct 22; Ottawa's suspension is the latest development in the same breach.