Palantir adds three UK police forces to its beat with 10.1m deal

Three UK police forces have awarded the American data firm Palantir a 10.1m five-year contract to provide an enterprise-wide data integration and analytics platform, following a separate setback in London. Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Hertfordshire Constabulary will use the software to ingest, link and analyse data from multiple systems across the policing environment, according to the contract award notice, which runs until October 2031.

The award

The three forces, covering the east of England, said the five-year agreement came after London Mayor Sadiq Khan blocked a separate deal between the Metropolitan Police and Palantir. That contract, worth an estimated 50m, was blocked on concerns about the procurement process. Palantir subsequently sued, but the case was settled in October. The award follows a report from MPs warning of vendor lock-in to US suppliers. In their report, the MPs said: ‘Our view that Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector represents an unacceptable point of weakness is not ideologically motivated or driven by concerns about the quality of their products. The government should retain the ability to pick and choose individual suppliers and safeguard against the risk of vendor lock-in and debilitating dependencies, particularly in areas of critical national importance such as healthcare and national security infrastructure.’

Former Met chief as adviser

News of the police contract award coincided with revelations that Dame Cressida Dick, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, has worked as a paid adviser to Palantir since September 2025. Dick led the Met between 2017 and 2022. She left after Mayor Khan said he had lost confidence in her, and she later said she had been intimidated into leaving. A Palantir spokesperson told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: ‘Dame Cressida is advising us on how our software could help improve the delivery of services in the public sector, drawing on more than 40 years of public service in a variety of roles.’

Why it matters

The contract deepens Palantir’s footprint in English policing at a moment of political sensitivity over its growing role in public services, including its NHS work, which has drawn scrutiny. For the three east-of-England forces, the platform offers the prospect of a unified view of data across their systems, but the award also comes as MPs warn of the dangers of over-reliance on a single US supplier in police work.

What happens next

The deal runs until October 2031, and the three forces will roll out Palantir’s enterprise-wide data integration and analytics capability across their operations. Watchpoints will include whether the rollout addresses the vendor-lock-in concerns raised by MPs, and whether scrutiny of Palantir’s public-sector role intensifies given its expanded footprint and the recent revelations about Dame Cressida Dick’s paid role as an adviser.