The Friday evening move followed similar moves by police services across Canada reacting to a reported data breach impacting Crime Stoppers.
The Ottawa Police Service announced Friday evening what it described as a “temporary” suspension of its use of the Crime Stoppers reporting platform.
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In doing so, Ottawa joined a wave of police services across Ontario and other parts of Canada in suspending use of Crime Stoppers following a reported data breach of the third-party reporting platform it used.
“While OPS and Crime Stoppers have worked closely in support of community safety, Crime Stoppers operates independently from the police service,” an OPS news release said. “The Crime Stoppers reporting platform is not connected to OPS internal systems.”
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For now, members of the public are encouraged to contact OPS directly to report crimes, suspicious activity or information related to ongoing investigations.
“While we take the protection of personal information seriously and handle it in accordance with our privacy and information security obligations, it doesn’t necessarily offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers,” the OPS statement said.
Members of the public looking to provide tips can do so by leaving messages after dialing 613-236-1222 and entering extension number 3000. The service said each caller would hear two rings followed by an answer from the voicemail box.
In an emergency, call 9-1-1. Non-emergency incidents can be reported by calling 613-236-1222 or through OPS online reporting options, where applicable, at ottawapolice.ca/report.
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