Police in Chatham-Kent are suspending their participation in the Crime Stoppers program after hundreds of thousands of anonymous tips were leaked as part of a Canada-wide data breach.
The Chatham-Kent Police Service (CKPS) is one of several southwestern Ontario police forces that have paused participation with Crime Stoppers in response to a CBC investigation that revealed more than 1.5 million submitted tips had been exposed in a data breach. More than 850,000 of those tips included personally identifiable information.
CK police officials called the decision “temporary” while “additional information about the breach is gathered and assessed.”
“Members of our community must have confidence that the information they provide is being protected,” said Chief Kirk Earley in a news release. “While we recognize the valuable contributions Crime Stoppers has made over the years, the incident requires us to proceed with caution. Pausing our participation is a necessary step while we assess the situation and await further information regarding the security of the system and the protection of those who use it.”
According to the CBC investigation, 13,850 tips submitted to Chatham-Kent Crime Stoppers were included in the breach.
The data was stolen last March when hackers targeted Navigate360, the U.S.-based third party that manages Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tips through its software platform P3.
CKPS and CK Crime Stoppers are separate and independent organizations, and police officials said the data breach did not involve any CKPS information systems or databases.
Authorities encourage the public to continue reporting information directly to police through established reporting methods. While police take measures to protect personal information, they cannot guarantee anonymity.