Palantir, London Mayor's Office Settle £50M Met Police Case
Is Palantir a vital capability Britain can't replicate or a risky dependency won through lobbying over merit?
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Above: The Palantir Technologies logo at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 19. Image credit: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
The Facts
- Palantir and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) announced on Wednesday that they have withdrawn allegations against each other, ending a High Court case over a blocked £50 million ($66.3 million) Metropolitan Police contract that was due to go to trial in January.
- MOPAC blocked the two-year deal in May for Palantir's Unified Operational Analytics system, which would use AI to process intelligence in criminal investigations, on the basis that awarding it without competition violated procurement rules.
- In response, Palantir filed a lawsuit against MOPAC in June, claiming the decision was politicized, with Palantir U.K. CEO Louis Moseley publicly accusing the mayor of "putting politics over public safety" during an appearance on Times Radio.
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The Spin
Pro-industry narrative
Those criticizing Palantir miss how important the firm is to greasing the wheels of government. Without it, hundreds of front-line police officers would not be on patrol, and hospital beds would be unavailable. Lacking a viable homegrown alternative, cutting Palantir would only deepen an already terrible state capacity crisis.
Industry-critical narrative
A state hooked on one American vendor loses all leverage to walk away, and over dependency invariably results in rising prices. Palantir buys access through well-connected lobbyists, cut-price deals and undeclared meetings, not by winning the work on merit. Sensitive public data deserves better custody than a firm openly hostile to British values.
