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Multiple Ontario police services have suspended their use of Crime Stoppers following a cybersecurity breach that may have exposed identifying details contained in anonymous tips. Forces in Halton, Peel, York, Hamilton and Kingston all announced suspensions after Toronto Crime Stoppers halted tip intake across its phone, online and app-based channels.
Tech analyst Carmi Levy described the situation in stark terms. “Crime Stoppers’ brand as we know it is essentially dead,” he told Global News. “This is catastrophic. If you called in information on any crime at all, and you assumed that information would be held confidential, that has now been blown up.”
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How the Breach Unfolded
In March, hackers stole data from P3, the tip-management software Toronto Crime Stoppers has used since 2018. Toronto Crime Stoppers Chair Sean Sportun confirmed the breach in a statement on Wednesday. He said Navigate360, the company that provides the P3 platform, had “repeatedly” assured the organization the system was secure.
One month after the attack, Navigate360 acknowledged that some Canadian data had been stolen. However, the company told Toronto Crime Stoppers that submissions from Toronto were not affected. That assessment later changed. In June, the organization learned that tips submitted between January 2022 and November 2025 had been compromised. By the following month, Navigate360 placed the total at 176,859 affected tips. Of those, 12,392 may contain personal information.
Sportun explained how identifying details sometimes end up in tips. “We never ask for your name, and we don’t want it. But people sometimes include details to explain what they saw,” he said. “Before a tip goes to investigators, our practice is to remove those details. It has come to light that some of those original tips containing potentially identifying information were stolen from P3.”
In September and October, Navigate360 provided Toronto Crime Stoppers with a list of 14,973 names found in the breach. Sportun said the list “lacks detail necessary to measure the risk involved” because it did not identify who the names belonged to. Toronto Crime Stoppers continues to press Navigate360 for further information. Navigate360 did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Global News.
Sportun also noted that “anonymously sourced information” reported earlier this week had not been shared directly with Toronto Crime Stoppers. Meanwhile, a CBC investigation published Wednesday reported that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips were affected by the breach.
Impact on Law Enforcement
Sean Sparling, a former deputy chief of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, told Global News that officers across Canada rely on Crime Stoppers “on a daily basis.” He said the program played a significant role in many of his own investigations during his career.
Despite the severity of the breach, Sparling expressed confidence in the program’s ability to recover. “Knowing Crime Stoppers and how well it’s organized, how well it works and its importance to the law enforcement community and the safety of our communities, I fully expect they’re going to recover from this,” he said.
Crime Stoppers programs in Peel and Hamilton each issued separate statements Thursday, confirming they are also pushing Navigate360 for more details. Police forces in Kingston, York and Halton said they are currently assessing the breach’s impact on their operations. Toronto police confirmed Wednesday they are temporarily suspending their use of Crime Stoppers while they evaluate new safeguards and other protective measures.
What the Public Should Know
Each police service confirmed that members of the public can still report information through standard police channels. However, those methods do not offer anonymity. Anyone facing an immediate emergency should call 911.
Sportun urged the public not to submit tips through Crime Stoppers until a safer system is in place. “Until we have a safer way to protect you, please do not send us tips by phone, online or through the app,” he said. “Pausing our program means that option isn’t available now, and we did not make this decision lightly. We are pausing because those people deserve a system we can fully stand behind.”
The Ontario Crime Stoppers cybersecurity breach has raised serious questions about the protection of anonymous tipsters. For now, several of the province’s largest police services are waiting for answers before they resume using the program.
