Peel Police suspend Crime Stoppers partnership following major data breach

Peel Regional Police has suspended its partnership with Crime Stoppers following a major data breach involving the program’s tip line system.

In March, hackers targeted the P3 software developed by Navigate360 and used by Crime Stoppers. Reports indicate that the breach resulted in the theft of approximately 1.5 million tips submitted to Crime Stoppers programs across Canada over the past 25 years.

Peel Police said the partnership will not resume until it is satisfied that the platform is fully secure. Toronto Police Service and Durham Regional Police Service have also suspended their partnerships with Crime Stoppers.

Approximately 177,000 tips submitted to Toronto’s Crime Stoppers program were included in the stolen data, along with around 15,000 names. However, it remains unclear whether those names belonged to tipsters or suspects.

For now, Peel Police is urging residents to share information about crimes directly with police officers. However, unlike Crime Stoppers, this method does not offer the same anonymity for people providing information.