Met gets extension to Palantir AI project after Sadiq Khan blocked deal
TL;DR
London’s Metropolitan Police can keep its Palantir pilot running for another 12 months while it runs a procurement process for a long-term supplier. Sadiq Khan blocked a planned £50m Palantir deal in May after his office said procurement rules had been seriously breached and only Palantir had been meaningfully considered. The pilot uses existing Met data to flag possible misconduct, welfare and culture issues across roughly 45,000 people in the organisation.
Nauti's Take
The Met is presenting this as a pragmatic bridge, but these bridges are where AI procurement gets slippery. Palantir stays embedded, learns the workflows and shapes the requirements before competitors even get a clean shot.
If London wants a real open tender, the process has to prove that the pilot has not already decided the outcome. Otherwise this is less an AI trial and more a 12-month head start for the incumbent.
Briefingshow
This is a live example of how public-sector AI pilots can become operational infrastructure before procurement and oversight catch up. A useful trial can quietly shape the final market by making one vendor hard to replace. With policing and personnel data, efficiency claims are not enough if competition, governance and accountability arrive late.
Sources