Canadian Crime Stoppers Association advises chapters to accept tips by phone only

The Canadian Crime Stoppers Association is advising its local chapters to solely accept tips by telephone instead of online, it said in a statement to CBC News on Friday.

Public asked to call 222-TIPS to submit tips anonymously

Listen to this article

Estimated 2 minutes

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

The Canadian Crime Stoppers Association is advising its local chapters to solely accept tips by telephone instead of online, it said in a statement to CBC News on Friday.

October 21|

Duration

5:32

The Canadian Crime Stoppers Association (CCSA) is advising its local chapters to solely accept tips by telephone instead of online, it said in a statement to CBC News on Friday.

The "interim telephone-only approach … will allow participating local programs to receive tips without using Navigate360’s P3 platform," reads the statement, referring to the third-party U.S. company's tip management platform that suffered a massive data breach in March.

It appears to be a shift for the not-for-profit organization, which had previously issued guidance to local programs that if asked, they should express their confidence in Navigate360's "security improvements [that] support continued operations."

In the Friday statement, the CCSA asked that the public now call 222-TIPS to submit tips anonymously. For programs that have been paused, there will be local announcements about when telephone reporting will resume, it said.

"Local programs will keep new information under their control and share it securely with law enforcement," reads the statement from CCSA president David J. Forster.  

The extent of the breach was revealed in a CBC investigation published last week, which found that over 1.5 million tips submitted to Canadian Crime Stoppers programs over the last 25 years had been hacked.

To date, more than 40 local Crime Stoppers chapters and police agencies in five provinces have temporarily paused their intake of anonymous tips or their partnerships with the organization.

More to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Valérie Ouellet is a bilingual senior reporter with CBC’s Investigative Unit in Toronto. Her data-driven stories on women’s health, medical devices, international students and the correctional system have earned numerous awards and accolades, including the St. Clair Balfour Fellowship at Massey College and the CAJ Data Journalism Award. She also teaches data journalism and mentors reporters across Canada. Since joining CBC/Radio-Canada in 2010, she has reported from Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec in both official languages. You can contact her with tips to valerie.ouellet@cbc.ca.