London Police Chief Warns City Will Be Less Safe After Palantir Deal Is Blocked

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley warned that London will be "less safe" by the end of the year after Mayor Sadiq Khan blocked a £50 million, $200 million deal with U.S. data analytics company Palantir. The contract was meant to use artificial intelligence to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations, freeing more officers for street duties.

Khan said he had concerns about using public money to support companies that operate "contrary to London's values" and about the procurement process used to award the contract. Pro-Palestinian activists said Palantir works with the Israel Defense Forces and has signed contracts with American defense firms, and they urged the mayor to stop the deal.

Rowley said the decision comes as budgets shrink and will force the Metropolitan Police to cut 1,150 staff in total, on top of reductions in earlier years. Speaking to Sky News, he said the force had already been cut by 3,300 people over the past three years and would now have to pull 500 to 700 officers off the streets, including a similar number who deal with troubled youths, so that those officers can replace the work Palantir would have done.

"There will be an impact on the streets of London," he said, explaining that the force had tried to use faster technology procurement to change things for Londoners. Asked whether that meant the city would be less safe, he replied, "Well, we are going to be smaller at the end of the year. So it will be less safe at the end of the year." The Jewish Chronicle reported that Palantir called Khan's ban a "political decision" and said its lawyers had written to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime to say it plans to challenge the ruling in court. The company already works in the NHS, where its data platform has been credited with improvements in cancer diagnosis, more use of operating theatres and fewer delays in patient discharge.