Met Police Federation threatens legal action over Palantir AI rollout
TL;DR: The Metropolitan Police Federation is weighing legal action over a Palantir-built AI tool that has triggered hundreds of misconduct assessments in its first week, arguing the system breaches officers’ Article 8 privacy rights and GDPR. Two officers have been arrested and two suspended. The dispute exposes a wider question for UK public-sector AI procurement: deploying surveillance tools below the £500,000 mayoral scrutiny threshold.
The Met’s Lawful Business Monitoring software was upgraded with Palantir’s AI without staff being told the upgrade introduced the US firm’s analytics layer, according to Federation general secretary Matt Cane. Officers were not informed before the tool began drawing data across multiple police systems to flag potential misconduct.
A misconduct dragnet, and a procurement workaround
Within seven days of go-live, the Met’s Professionalism Directorate identified what it called hundreds of potential breaches. Beyond the two arrests and two suspensions, 98 officers face misconduct assessment, 500 received prevention notices for alleged duty-rostering abuse, and 42 senior leaders are being assessed for breaching the 80% in-office hybrid working rule. A further 12 officers face gross misconduct proceedings for failing to declare Freemason membership.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said he had no formal role in approving the contract because it fell below the £500,000 threshold that would have triggered City Hall scrutiny. A spokesperson noted Khan would generally have concerns about contracts with firms whose conduct conflicts with London’s stated values. The threshold workaround has previously drawn criticism from civil society groups tracking Palantir’s expansion across the UK public sector, where the firm now holds NHS, MoD, and police-force contracts.
Silicon UK reports the Federation describes round-the-clock device location tracking as “an outrageous and unforgivable invasion of privacy” and is now advising members to leave Met-issued devices at home when off duty.
Looking forward
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley framed the rollout as a tool for raising standards after the Charing Cross scandal. The Federation’s threatened legal action — citing Article 8 of the Human Rights Act and GDPR — could force a court to test whether the £500,000 procurement threshold is fit for purpose when the technology being procured is surveillance-grade AI. For UK SMEs and councils watching from the sidelines, the Met dispute is a live worked example of what happens when an AI deployment moves faster than the consent process around it.