Met could expand Palantir AI use after 'hundreds' identified in rogue officer crackdown

The Metropolitan Police used US tech firm Palantir's systems to analyse data including sickness records, overtime, expenses, building access and public complaints, in what Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described as part of a wider effort to root out wrongdoing inside Britain’s biggest police force.

The findings mean hundreds of rogue police officers are now facing the sack after the AI software revealed officers engaged in serious corruption and criminality, including abuse of authority for sexual purposes and fraud.

In a week-long AI pilot, run without officers’ knowledge, the investigation uncovered years of abuse by senior officials, including false overtime claims, scamming systems to gain extra days off, lying about where they were working and hiding their membership of the Freemasons.

Read more: High Court challenge against Met over Freemason declaration policy thrown out

As a result, 615 police officers have been issued warning notices, with 598 of those cases linked to abuse of the IT shift system for personal or financial benefit.

Around 42 senior officers, ranging from chief inspector to chief superintendent, could lose their jobs after breaching rules requiring them to be in the office at least 80% of the time, instead falsely claiming they were working on-site.

In total, 100 police officers are under investigation for gross misconduct. Of those, 12 face proceedings for failing to declare their membership of the Freemasons, while a further 30 remain under suspicion.

Meanwhile, three officers have been suspended and two arrested for abusing their role. Another 30 have been flagged for ‘suspicious behaviour’, although the force says this is ‘currently uncorroborated’.

The tool works by pulling together existing internal data and using algorithms to spot patterns, anomalies and red flags, helping to identify crime patterns and misconduct earlier.

The software is supplied by the controversial US tech company Palantir, which also works with the Israeli military and Trump’s ICE operation.

The Metropolitan Police is exploring whether similar AI tools could be used beyond internal discipline, including to analyse crime data, identify high-risk offenders and map crime hotspots, and is in talks with Palantir over a potential deal to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations.

As the tool handles highly sensitive data, including victims’ personal and behavioural information, critics warn it could enable mass surveillance and there are concerns about a private foreign company accessing UK policing systems.

Met Commissioner Mark Rowley said 1,500 officers and staff have been dismissed since 2022 as part of an “integrity reset” launched in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder and the Charing Cross scandal, which exposed racist and misogynistic behaviour within the force.

However, he has insisted more work was needed to root out wrongdoing, telling the Daily Mail “we've still got further to dig down for the people who are determined not to change.”

He described the findings as “extraordinary”, adding it was “soul destroying” for frontline officers when colleagues were “scamming the duty system to get extra days off for extra payments.”

“By bringing together the information we already lawfully hold, we can identify risk earlier, act faster and be fairer and more consistent.”

The move has been criticised by the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers and has warned the system could misinterpret workload pressures or sickness as wrongdoing and have described it as “automated suspicion”.

MPs have called for a review of the Met’s contracts with Palantir this week, following concerns over the company’s manifesto, which some described as 'the ramblings of a super villain'.

If approved, the move would mark a major expansion of AI use within the Met.

But critics warn that as its use grows, so will concerns over surveillance and accountability.