UPDATE, OCTOBER 22: This article now includes the Hamilton and Halton police pauses and Halton’s confirmation of affected data. The original publication time and article address are retained.

Hamilton and Halton police have suspended their use of Crime Stoppers amid concerns about the security of its third-party tip-management platform.

CHCH reported at 4:12 p.m. Thursday that Hamilton police had paused its participation while seeking further information about Navigate360’s safeguards. The report says police had received assurances after being alerted to a compromise in June.

In its own October 22 statement, Halton Regional Police said it had been told some data relating to Halton was included in the breach. It suspended its use of the program while awaiting more information about the scope and impact.

Halton police emphasized that Crime Stoppers operates independently and its platform is not connected to internal police systems. People can contact police through existing reporting channels, but the service warns that direct reporting does not carry Crime Stoppers anonymity.

Hamilton’s earlier public notice, dated June 17, also described the platform as outside its internal systems. That historical notice should not be confused with Thursday’s reported pause.

Earlier Toronto reporting

Toronto Crime Stoppers has stopped accepting tips following a breach of its third-party submission platform, while Toronto Police has separately suspended its use of the program.

The Canadian Press reported October 22 that the organization said 176,859 Toronto tips and 14,973 names were included in stolen data. The tips were submitted between January 2022 and November 2025.

Those figures do not establish that nearly 15,000 tipsters were identified. Crime Stoppers said software owner Navigate360 had not told it whether the names belonged to people submitting information, people named in tips, or both, and had not provided the stolen text.

In its October 21 statement, Toronto Police said the affected platform operates independently of the force and that the two organizations are separate. Police said its pause would continue while it reviewed the information and assessed safeguards.

The Toronto figures are not a count of affected Hamilton or Halton records. The statements reviewed do not establish that the police services’ own internal systems were breached.

Sources: Halton police, October 22; CHCH’s October 22 report, 4:12 p.m.; Hamilton police’s historical June 17 notice; Toronto Police, October 21; The Canadian Press via CHCH, October 22.

Editorial illustration of an anonymous-tip intake pause.