No less than six police forces have racked up contracts with Palantir value £7.8m

No less than six totally different police forces have not too long ago used synthetic intelligence (AI) investigation instruments supplied by Palantir Applied sciences, Pc Weekly and Good Legislation Mission have discovered. 

Agreements between Palantir and these police forces have price £7.8m, and the agency was near signing a further £50m contract with the Metropolitan Police earlier than London’s mayor put it on maintain.

No less than six confirmed police forces have had entry to Palantir, whereas officers from a number of others seem to have restricted entry to functions in Palantir’s Nectar system.

Palantir Nectar permits info sharing between native forces, regional taskforces and accomplice companies utilizing Palantir’s Foundry knowledge integration platform. Nectar makes use of AI to course of giant volumes of private knowledge from crime data, seized digital gadgets and different unknown sources.

Some police forces have been reluctant to reveal their involvement with Palantir. The corporate’s UK chief, Louis Mosley, mentioned in mid-2025 that the agency was working with “nearly a dozen” police forces. Over a 12 months on, solely a handful have been recognized.

Investigative outlet Democracy for Sale reported {that a} secret unit within the Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has been “systematically instructing” forces to withhold info “that will or is probably not held in relation to Palantir software program used for covert functions”.

Probably the most not too long ago recognized pressure to check Palantir’s know-how is Lancashire Police, which acquired Palantir’s Foundry software program by means of Softcat, a UK-based IT infrastructure and software program provider. Foundry is identical software program framework that underpins Palantir Nectar, the NHS Federated Knowledge Platform and the Met Police’s inner workers compliance monitoring device.

Lancashire’s settlement was for a “proof of idea” the pressure was growing, at a value of £860k. The pressure seems to have had entry to Palantir’s software program between March 2025 and June 2026, which included a contract extension.

The pressure additionally mentioned in freedom of data (FOI) disclosures that “there have been conversations with this provider [Palantir] and others to have a look at alternatives on how these AI-driven applied sciences can help digital policing”. Nonetheless, Lancashire Police has stored no minutes of any conferences that will have mentioned the venture.

The pressure was approached to ask whether or not its venture was associated to its regional taskforce and Nectar, however had not responded on the time of publication.

Leicestershire Police additionally signed an £800,000 contract with Palantir in October 2024, as reported by The Leicester Gazette, which obtained the knowledge underneath the Freedom of Info Act, following intervention of the regulator on behalf of the publication. The pressure is among the few confirmed customers of Palantir’s software program within the East Midlands Particular Operations Unit (Emsou), a regional taskforce tackling organised crime and terrorism.

The Emsou consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire police forces. Based on assembly data obtained by Pc Weekly, all these forces have taken half in a number of cross-constabulary briefings on Palantir Nectar. 

Different forces within the Emsou neither verify nor deny (NCND) responses – the tactic utilized by the police chiefs’ disclosure blocking unit – to Pc Weekly’s freedom of data requests, or have ignored them fully, when requested if they’re utilizing Palantir’s software program.

After approaching the respective press places of work, Lincolnshire Police mentioned Nectar doesn’t “seem” to be in use by the pressure. Northamptonshire Police mentioned officers haven’t any “direct entry” to the system and there aren’t any plans to undertake it.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have been each contacted to reply queries about potential entry to Palantir Nectar, however didn’t reply by the point of publication.

A spokesman for the Emsou didn’t reply questions on which forces within the regional unit get entry to the system, however mentioned: “We adopted applicable processes to safe companies to help the supply of operational policing.”

Bedfordshire Police is main a trial of Palantir Nectar within the Japanese Regional Particular Operations Unit (Ersou). The trial was first reported by Liberty Investigates as a “real-time surveillance community” that displays particular class private knowledge akin to race, faith, political opinions and sexual orientation, and The i Paper reported that rape victims may have their knowledge trawled by its AI.

The Metropolitan Police described Bedfordshire’s Nectar programme as a “real-time data-sharing community throughout Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police, Regional Policing, UK Policing and accomplice companies” when evaluating the launch of its personal inner monitoring venture.

Paperwork obtained by Pc Weekly reveal the vary of permissions granted to members of the Ersou to entry Nectar’s inner functions. The unit seems to be granted entry to stay atmosphere functions dealing with name knowledge data, system analytics, thematic scanning, operations administration and extra.

A spokesperson for the pressure has confirmed that seconded officers from different police forces within the Ersou “could also be supplied entry to Nectar functions utilizing role-based entry management in accordance with info safety and entry administration insurance policies and procedures”.

Police forces within the Ersou embody Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Pc Weekly has beforehand discovered that Bedfordshire Police admitted in inner memos that there stays a “medium danger” that the system will doubtlessly course of knowledge for functions which can be neither proportionate nor vital.

Based on these paperwork, victims and offenders of crimes weren’t consulted when growing the system, though sufferer help teams have been.

One of many knowledge sources for Bedfordshire’s Nectar venture is Athena, a criminal offense data info sharing system utilized by 9 forces, together with Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Warwickshire and West Mercia police. It’s not identified if different forces within the Athena consortium are utilizing Nectar itself, though they might be contributing knowledge into the system.

Bedfordshire Police instructed Pc Weekly and Good Legislation Mission it has been engaged in a rolling contract with Palantir since September 2023, with the newest extension between August 2025 and August 2026.

It has paid, in response to expenditure disclosures, nearly £3m to Palantir Applied sciences since 2023. A portion of this was funded by the House Workplace, which gave the Ersou £1.5m to develop the venture within the monetary 12 months 2024-25, in response to freedom of data disclosures to Pc Weekly.

Hertfordshire Police additionally has a contract with Palantir costing £750,000 for one 12 months, in response to freedom of data disclosures to Good Legislation Mission, though the agency hasn’t appeared in any detailed expenditure disclosures.

In the meantime, Cambridgeshire Police claimed it has not held any contracts with Palantir prior to now 5 years when requested by means of FOI requests.

Nonetheless, spending disclosures reveal the pressure made a cost of virtually £12,000 to Palantir in August final 12 months. When requested about this, the pressure defined to Pc Weekly and Good Legislation Mission that it had, actually, signed a “short-term contract” spanning two months, starting in March 2025, for a pilot “targeted on a selected safeguarding operate”.

The pressure mentioned the pilot “helped inform our understanding of how any such know-how may help particular policing processes. It was exploratory in nature, time-limited, and didn’t symbolize a wider implementation of Palantir know-how by the constabulary”.

“Past that pilot, no stay operational contract was in place, and no choices had or have been made concerning any broader use of the know-how,” it added. 

The Metropolitan Police has additionally been engaged in a controversial inner monitoring venture with Palantir, referred to as the Tradition, Requirements and Integrity Ecosystem, constructed on the Foundry framework. The purpose is to “determine patterns that will point out inappropriate behaviour” utilizing knowledge akin to, for instance, door entry logs and misconduct stories.

The preliminary three-month take care of Palantir, starting in February this 12 months and costing £489,999, was prolonged for an additional two weeks, freed from cost. A 12-month extension has since been awarded, valued at £1,959,996.

As Pc Weekly has beforehand reported, “high-risk” processing within the Met pilot would come with particular class knowledge, knowledge on kids underneath 13 and different weak people, alongside monitoring people in public areas.

The Met Police’s knowledge safety impression evaluation, obtained by Good Legislation Mission, discovered that the pressure has not accomplished an moral assessment and the “necessity and impression on privateness of the information processing is at present being assessed”.

The doc highlights that solely “some phases of knowledge dealing with meet authorized requirements” for evidential use, and that “enhancements are wanted”. In the meantime, the documented standards to evaluate accuracy, relevance and bias minimisation are at present being “developed and documented”.

It’s understood that the Met Police’s inner monitoring venture, though targeted on rooting out corruption within the pressure, has additionally been capable of entry delicate operational policing materials in justified circumstances.

A spokesperson for the pressure mentioned: “Our pilot work allowed the Met for the primary time to carry collectively knowledge it already lawfully holds in a single place to determine potential requirements, welfare or cultural considerations. This targeted on figuring out potential conduct points and a major variety of issues at the moment are being progressed by our skilled requirements crew.

“This contract will help each our work on elevating requirements and our ambitions to make use of the know-how to streamline administrative processes, shut price range gaps and liberate officers to police the streets of London.”

The pressure additionally mentioned it’s working with the Mayor’s Workplace for Policing and Crime (Mopac) to develop a procurement technique to determine a long-term provider.

The Met has lengthy experimented with Palantir’s software program, together with trials with the corporate between 2014-15 alongside plenty of different crime-mapping software program suppliers. 

The corporate was, earlier this 12 months, getting ready to signing a £50m settlement with the Met, however this was blocked by Mopac. It could have been the agency’s largest contract with regulation enforcement but, however considerations across the procurement course of put an finish to that. 

Palantir, however, mentioned it has “clear motive to imagine that the choice might have been taken as a result of, within the phrases of the mayor’s spokesperson, of a subjective evaluation that [Palantir] doesn’t share their ‘values’”. The agency is now taking authorized motion towards Mopac.

To date, policing districts identified to have contracts with Palantir or entry to Palantir’s knowledge processing know-how embody Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, and Leicestershire police forces, alongside the Met Police’s almost 50,000 workers.

It’s understood that a number of different forces have both granted restricted entry to Nectar by means of regional taskforces or are contributing knowledge to info sharing techniques utilized by Nectar.

The total extent of Palantir’s unfold throughout UK police forces stays unsure. A number of forces proceed to depend on NCND exemptions to forestall FOI disclosures regarding their work with the agency.

Duncan McCann, Good Legislation Mission’s tech and knowledge lead, believes secrecy round Palantir’s software program is because of its “flaws and inherent risks”.

Marketing campaign teams have beforehand referred to as for an investigation into the police chiefs’ unit answerable for blocking disclosures regarding Palantir by means of the Freedom of Info Act, the NPCC.

Jake Hurfurt, head of analysis and investigations at Massive Brother Watch, mentioned: “The NPCC’s central FOI unit is a hazard to transparency and the general public’s proper to know.”

Martin Wrigley MP for Newton Abbot, a part of the parliamentary Science, Innovation and Know-how Committee, instructed Good Legislation Mission and Pc Weekly: “We’re in a really harmful world the place these instruments are adopted up with out ample course of round them, and with out ample knowledge safety round them.”

He referred to as Palantir’s offers with UK police forces and public authorities “extraordinarily worrying”.

Palantir Applied sciences and the Emsou have been additionally approached for remark.