Windsor Watchers · Our Oath

Our Oath

We swear this oath to honour the people of Windsor-Essex: those who live here now, those who came before and built this place, and the cities and towns themselves.

Windsor Watchers is a Windsor News public service. We are here to help the people of this region. We are not the police. We are not an anonymous police tip line. We will never claim to be either, or imply that we are.

Protect tipsters

We will never name anyone who sends us a tip. We will protect tipsters and collect only the information we need. We will never claim informer privilege.

Official police sources

We will publish wanted notices only from official police sources. We will link back to those sources, and we will take a notice down when the police service that issued it does. That means Windsor Police Service (Amherstburg included), LaSalle Police, and the Ontario Provincial Police in the rest of Essex County.

Official figures for 2026

We will use official crime figures for 2026 only.

This is our oath.

We work with police

Windsor Watchers cooperates fully with police and with any lawful order. We pass tips to the right police service, and we never stand in the way of an investigation.

How tips are protected

Text tips are encrypted with a public key before they are stored. The private key is held only by Windsor Watchers, kept offline. Email alerts carry no tip content. The tip line checks Twilio request signatures and refuses requests that fail. Stored encrypted tips are deleted after 90 days, unless a legal hold requires a longer hold. This is not end-to-end encryption, and it is not unbreakable. It does not make a tip anonymous, and it does not stop a lawful order. The online tip form is not open yet. More detail is on the Privacy and security page.

Read how to reach police on How to Report, and the short Terms.