Palantir policing pullback driven by funding as eastern pilot pushes on
Palantir’s loss of a five-force policing pilot was driven by a combination of funding pressures and an assessment of the project, City AM understands.
While the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) will end its two-year trial of Palantir’s Foundry software this month, the US tech firm’s work with a separate consortium of forces in eastern England is understood to be continuing.
The East Midlands programme brought together Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire police and explored using Palantir’s software to bring together and analyse information held across different systems.
Ian Green, the assistant chief constable in charge of EMSOU, said the decision followed an assessment of what the technology would deliver alongside the unit’s “future funding streams”.
Home Office funding for the programme has been discontinued.
The decision nevertheless marks a setback for Palantir as it attempts to deepen its role in British policing, where a number of forces have trialled its technology.
Palantir points to policing gains
Palantir defended its record, pointing to existing deployments across British forces.
“Palantir software has a proven track record of helping to crack crime”, a spokesperson said.
The company said its technology had helped improve enforcement of Clare’s Law in Bedfordshire, identifying 1,000 women in a year whose partners had histories of domestic violence.
It also helped police bring down a Luton gang responsible for stealing £700,000 from cash machines.
Elsewhere, the firm pointed to its work with the Metropolitan Police, where it said software had helped uncover serious corruption and criminality within the force.
Palantir said the Met had identified significant efficiency gains from the technology, including cutting analysis of seized mobile phones from 48 hours to two hours.
It said another use case allowed one intelligence officer to complete in one hour work that would otherwise take 10 officers eight hours.
The development comes as Palantir faces a separate battle over a proposed Met contract worth up to £50m, which was blocked by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime over procurement and value-for-money concerns. Palantir is seeking a judicial review of that decision.
It also comes days after former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joined the company as a senior vice president, working across its UK defence, policing and NHS operations.