{"id":405303,"date":"2026-04-22T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/405303\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:20:07","slug":"met-police-in-talks-to-buy-palantir-ai-tech-for-use-in-criminal-investigations-metropolitan-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/405303\/","title":{"rendered":"Met police in talks to buy Palantir AI tech for use in criminal investigations | Metropolitan police"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Metropolitan police has held talks with Palantir<\/a> that could lead to the London force buying the US spy-tech company\u2019s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis for criminal investigations, the Guardian has learned.<\/p>\n

Palantir, whose software is used by Donald Trump\u2019s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, demonstrated its systems to senior officers in the intelligence division at the UK\u2019s largest police force last month. Intelligence staff have been tasked with finding intelligence systems that AI could automate to increase productivity.<\/p>\n

The talks have created internal concerns about allowing a controversial US company to process highly sensitive intelligence data relating to crimes, such as victims\u2019 personal information.<\/p>\n

Palantir already supplies<\/a> experimental AI to Scotland Yard aimed at detecting rogue officers, and there are internal expectations that the company is likely to be asked to significantly expand its role in what could be a multimillion pound contract.<\/p>\n

The talks come amid rising public and political scrutiny of the rapid increase of Palantir\u2019s public contracts with the NHS, Ministry of Defence, councils and smaller police forces. Those contracts are already valued at more than \u00a3500m in total.<\/p>\n

Last week, MPs demanded ministers scrap<\/a> NHS England\u2019s \u00a3330m deal to handle patient and other health data because of anger at the company\u2019s connections with Trump and the Israeli military and fears about patient privacy. Until recently Palantir paid Global Counsel, a consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson, for lobbying services.<\/p>\n

This week, MPs redoubled calls for the government to review its Palantir contracts after the spy tech company published a manifesto on X extolling the benefits of US power and implying some cultures were inferior to others. Parliamentarians described the manifesto as<\/a> \u201cthe ramblings of a super villain\u201d and \u201ca disturbing narcissistic rant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Palantir was co-founded by the billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smaller police forces, including Bedfordshire, are already using the company\u2019s technology to help investigations and have praised<\/a> its effectiveness. The reception for Palantir systems in the NHS has been patchier. The company has claimed<\/a> its software has helped deliver 110,000 additional operations, as well as reductions in discharge delays, but some NHS staff have complained about the tools and several hospital trusts are not yet using them.<\/p>\n

Palantir\u2019s \u00a3240m contract with the MoD to deploy military AI systems for \u201cstrategic, tactical and live operational decision making\u201d was signed after Mandelson took Keir Starmer to visit the company\u2019s showroom in Washington DC last year. Mandelson was the UK ambassador to the US ay the time, but was later sacked over his association with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Some Met intelligence officials are understood to believe significant improvements in the way the London<\/a> force handles intelligence data could be achieved without bringing in a big US contractor such as Palantir.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need \u00a3100m AI,\u201d a source said. \u201cWe would like the more basic systems we already have to work properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Met talks with Palantir come as the force explores ways to automate analysis of intelligence in a wide range of criminal activity and fast-moving emergency situations. Scotland Yard is understood to be heading quickly towards embracing AI automation in its intelligence units, and if a deal is confirmed it would represent a significant expansion in Palantir\u2019s involvement in UK law enforcement.<\/p>\n

In January, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, called for police to \u201cramp up use of AI\u201d and to adopt the technology \u201cat pace and scale\u201d. A strategy for the future of policing includes creating a national centre, described by some as \u201cPolice.AI<\/a>\u201d, and a \u00a3115m investment to \u201ccreate a platform for identifying, testing and then scaling AI technology\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government said it would result in more criminals caught, accelerated investigations, less red tape and a better service for victims and witnesses. Eleven smaller police forces in England and Wales have started using Palantir\u2019s technology in investigations, but extending Palantir\u2019s role to the Met, with its 46,000 officers and staff, would be a far larger undertaking.<\/p>\n

With no deal confirmed, the Met declined to confirm or deny talks with Palantir. The company declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan police has held talks with Palantir that could lead to the London force buying the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-405303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}