The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) says it is temporarily suspending its use of the Crime Stoppers platform following a reported data breach involving the third-party reporting platform used by Crime Stoppers programs across Canada. The move follows several other police services in the wake of a CBC News report into the data breach of Navigate360’s P3 platform, the system used by Crime Stoppers organizations to receive and manage tips from the public. A news release from Navigate360 on Friday said the potentially impacted information may include name, address, date of birth, social security numbers, telephone numbers, email addresses, and other categories of sensitive information. “We have no evidence of misuse of any personal information for fraud or identity theft. Please note the information impacted varies for each potentially impacted individual,” the release said. The Ottawa Police Service, meanwhile, says it has paused its use of the Crime Stoppers platform “out of an abundance of caution,” while noting that it operates independently from the police service. “While OPS and Crime Stoppers have worked closely in support of community safety, Crime Stoppers operates independently from the police service. The Crime Stoppers reporting platform is not connected to OPS internal systems,” a news release says. “At this time, OPS is working to better understand the scope and impact of the incident and is reviewing available information… OPS will continue to monitor developments and assess any potential impacts on police operations.” The Kingston Police Service also said this week that it would not be using Crime Stoppers as a reporting channel following news of the data breach. On Thursday, the chair of Toronto Crime Stoppers told CP24 that the data breach that stole more than 176,000 tips has been “devastating” for the program and for the public and police. Ottawa police are encouraging the public to contact them directly to report crimes, suspicious activity or information related to ongoing investigations. “While we take the protection of personal information seriously and handle it in accordance with our privacy and information security obligations, it doesn’t necessarily offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers,” police said. Ottawa police said members of the public looking to provide a tip, can do so by leaving a message after dialing 613-236-1222 and entering extension number 3000. The caller will hear two rings followed by an answer from the voicemailbox. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.
