Metropolitan Police Uses Palantir AI System to Flag Officer Misconduct
The Metropolitan Police deployed Palantir's AI tools in a time-limited pilot to analyse officer data on sickness, absences and overtime patterns to identify professional standards issues. The Police Federation criticised the system as 'automated suspicion' that could misinterpret workload pressures as misconduct, while the Met stated that human officers make final determinations rather than the AI system alone.
What happened
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it is using Palantir's AI tools to analyse internal data about sickness levels, absences from duty and overtime patterns in an effort to identify potential shortcomings in professional standards.
The system operates as a time-limited pilot by bringing together data from multiple existing internal databases. The Met stated the aim was to 'help us identify these patterns of behaviour in our officers and staff' and was 'part of our wider effort to drive up standards and improve the Met's culture'.
Reported impact
The Police Federation condemned the deployment, characterising the approach as 'automated suspicion' and stating that officers 'must not be subjected to opaque or untested tools that risk misinterpreting unsustainable workload pressures, sickness or overtime as indicators of wrongdoing'.
A Police Federation spokesperson warned that 'any system that profiles officers using algorithmic patterns must be treated with extreme caution' and called for the focus to remain 'on proper supervision, fair processes and human judgment, not the automation of suspicion'.
Index analysis
The Met stated there is 'evidence to suggest a correlation between significant levels of sickness, increased absences or unusually high overtime, and failings in standards, culture and behaviour'.
The Met added that 'Palantir's systems help to identify the patterns, but it is officers who then explore further and make any determinations on standards, performance or other issues'.
Governance controls
The Met described the Palantir pilot as time-limited. The force emphasised that officers, not the AI system, make final determinations on standards, performance or other issues.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.