Exclusive: Ex-Met Police chief is paid adviser for Palantir

Former Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick has been working for Palantir as a paid adviser for the last year, the Bureau can reveal, as the controversial US tech firm continues to expand its reach within British policing.

The revelation comes as Palantir wins a major new contract worth £10m with a group of forces in the east of England.

The five-year deal will enable Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police forces to use the company’s Foundry data platform. It follows a pilot project known as “Nectar”, for which Palantir developed a “real-time data-sharing network” to assist with decision-making and investigation of crimes in the region. The company also holds a £9m deal to run a firearms licensing system used by all UK police forces.

The latest contract marks a breakthrough in Palantir’s efforts to build its UK law enforcement business despite setbacks earlier this year. A group of East Midlands forces opted not to renew a two-year contract with the firm and London mayor Sadiq Khan blocked a £50m deal with the Met Police.

Palantir’s efforts have likely been boosted by the appointment of Dame Cressida, who was Britain’s highest-ranking police officer between 2017 and 2022 after three years leading the UK’s counterterrorism policing unit and two years as a director general in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

A Palantir spokesperson said: “Dame Cressida is advising us on how our software could help improve the delivery of services in the public sector, drawing on more than 40 years of public service in a variety of roles.”

Dame Cressida said: “My role is limited to providing advice on the ways in which products such as theirs may assist public sector services. I do not and have not ever lobbied or advocated for Palantir with any organisation or individual in any sector, nor have I ever introduced Palantir to any contact of mine.”

The new recruit is only the latest in a series of former high-ranking public officials to join the payroll of the tech giant, prompting accusations of a “revolving door” for senior execs at public bodies in the UK and US where the firm is seeking work.

Labour Party peer and former deputy leader Tom Watson, who was an MP for over 18 years, joined as UK senior vice president of Palantir in September. Other hires from the halls of power include former Conservative defence minister Leo Docherty and Laurence Lee, another former director general in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a second permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence.

Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat MP who has called for government bodies to cancel contracts with Palantir, told the Bureau: “It never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to pay money to Palantir for the shoddy goods that they deliver. They think themselves the best in the world but they are just not that good — and keep on hiring people to bend ears to get them in via the back door.”

Dame Cressida first rose to public prominence in 2005, when she led the operation that ended in the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian electrician who was mistaken by Met Police marksmen for a suspect in the 7/7 London bombings.

Her tenure as Met commissioner was also fraught with a series of crises for the force, including the high-profile murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met Police officer.

She eventually stepped down from the role after an Independent Office for Police Conduct reported “disgraceful” misogyny, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment within the Met’s ranks.

Dame Cressida said she had been left with “no choice” but to resign after London mayor Sadiq Khan said he had lost confidence in her leadership.