Canadian Police Services Split on Crime Stoppers Use After Navigate360 Data Breach
A data breach at U.S.-based Navigate360, which manages the P3 tip platform for Crime Stoppers, may have exposed names, addresses, and other sensitive information from anonymous tips submitted between November 2025 and March 2026. While some police services continue to accept tips, others have paused intake as Canada's privacy commissioner investigates.
Some Canadian police services are continuing to promote Crime Stoppers despite a data breach that may have exposed identifying information included in anonymous tips. The breach involved Navigate360, the U.S.-based company that manages Crime Stoppers’ P3 tip platform, which reported that a third party accessed its systems and copied data between Nov. 21, 2025, and March 5, 2026.
Names, addresses, and other sensitive information may have been affected by the breach, though the specific data involved varies from person to person. Sean Sportun, chair of Toronto Crime Stoppers, said people sometimes include identifying details in tips, which are normally removed before reaching investigators, but some original tips containing this information were stolen.
In Toronto, 176,859 tips submitted through the organization’s software between January 2022 and November 2025 were affected, including 12,392 that may contain personal information. Navigate360 supplied a separate list containing 14,973 names related to the breach. Toronto Crime Stoppers has paused phone, online, and app-based tip intake while seeking more information from Navigate360.
Other police services have taken different approaches. The Calgary Police Service continues to accept tips through Crime Stoppers, stating they are satisfied with additional security measures put in place by Crime Stoppers Canada. RCMP director of media relations Jessica Kingsbury stated that Crime Stoppers is an important public safety tool and that the RCMP is working with the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association to determine the full scope of the breach.
Navigate360 stated it has found no evidence that the personal information exposed has been used for fraud or identity theft. Meanwhile, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is investigating the security safeguards Navigate360 had in place at the time of the breach to determine compliance with federal private-sector privacy law.