How the tech giant Palantir was recruited by the police, the NHS (UK National Health Service), and the armed forces

The American data analytics company is helping to fight crime, reduce hospital waiting lists, and strengthen asymmetric warfare. But is it a force for good?

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of Palantir.

Last November, nine members of a Romanian organized crime gang were convicted of fraud and sentenced to a total of more than 20 years in prison. They had stolen £700,000 from ATMs in 51 different locations across the UK, using sophisticated devices to bypass security systems during thousands of nighttime raids.

When detectives traveled to Romania to investigate, they found a heavily protected property with images of Peaky Blinders displayed on the gates and the phrase “F*** the police” printed at the bottom of the swimming pool. They seized assets including a Lamborghini and a Porsche.

What made the case unusual was that it was one of the first major police investigations enabled by artificial intelligence. Data from mobile phones, CCTV footage, vehicle license plate records, and identity documents were all cross-referenced and automatically analyzed to identify connections. The system identified more than 120 crimes it believed had occurred, organized them by severity, and placed suspects at crime scenes.

One gang member had a photo of the stolen money on his phone, while another had asked ChatGPT how long he would go to prison if caught. Conversations between the criminals in Romanian—including slang typical of Eastern European gangsters—were instantly translated into English and transcribed.

Instead of taking months, the investigation took weeks. The evidence was so overwhelming that all the men pleaded guilty. Without artificial intelligence, said Trevor Rodenhurst, chief constable of Bedfordshire, who oversaw the investigation: “I’m not sure we would even have been able to charge them.”

Bedfordshire police use Palantir’s Foundry software to extract and synthesize information from dozens of sources. The global data analytics company is controversial, but Rodenhurst said crimes are being solved and lives are “undoubtedly” being saved thanks to its technology.

Previously, investigators had to trawl through more than 80 databases looking for clues. Now, with a single click of a mouse, they can view a summary of data from thousands of WhatsApp messages, as well as documents and 999 emergency calls.

Over 12 months, the software helped police identify at least 1,000 women whose partners had a history of domestic violence. They were then warned they could be at risk.

There have been no domestic murders since the new system was introduced; usually, five or six such killings occur each year. “I can’t prove the correlation, but if you’ve told more than 1,000 people that there may be a risk to them… this feels like prevention in action at scale,” said the chief constable.

Tasks that previously took police hours are finished in minutes. Time spent completing suspect profiles has been cut by 80%, and building criminal association charts by 75%. Bedfordshire police estimate the software has given them the equivalent of 54 additional full-time officers.

“We’re making some things possible that weren’t possible before,” said Rodenhurst. “It’s enabling me to protect communities in a way that I couldn’t do before, and to make more cost-efficient use of my resources.”

The experience of Bedfordshire police highlights a dilemma at the highest level in Whitehall. The prime minister is convinced that technology is the only way to square the circle of governing with dwindling resources and rising demand. But there is a tension between the need to improve public sector productivity and the state’s responsibility to protect citizens and retain control over service delivery.

The government is becoming increasingly reliant on Palantir, a company co-founded by Peter Thiel, a libertarian supporter of Donald Trump who once said: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

The $360 billion tech giant, which is helping the Pentagon identify targets in Iran, is now integral to the running of the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, and the police in the UK. Palantir has almost 1,000 employees in the UK—17% of its global workforce—and is moving next into local government.

Coventry has become the first council to use its software to organize social care and special educational needs provision. The outcomes are impressive, but critics fear the state is entering a Faustian bargain that raises questions about data security and creates risks for taxpayers.

A briefing by the health justice charity Medact warned that the “highly interoperable nature” of Palantir’s software could lead to “data-driven state abuses of power.”

In the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses Palantir software to track people through cross-government data analysis. After fatal shootings in Minneapolis, UK employees expressed internal concerns about the ethics of working with ICE.

Amnesty International has criticized the company, which has a contract with the Israeli government, for “contributing” to what it describes as “genocide” in Gaza. Palantir was also named by a UN special rapporteur as enabling the “unlawful use of force.”

Alex Karp, the company’s CEO, has declared that Palantir “is here to disrupt… and when necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.”

There are also concerns about the “revolving door” between politics and business. During a visit to Washington, Keir Starmer went directly from meeting Trump at the White House to Palantir’s headquarters. At the time, Peter Mandelson was UK ambassador to the US, while his lobbying firm represented Palantir.

Rachael Maskell, a Labour MP, said the company is part of a “circle of power” involving wealthy elites and raised concerns about data governance and political misuse.

Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski called Palantir “a scandal” and questioned how it gained access to sensitive public data and national security infrastructure.

However, former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt argued that concerns about big tech are exaggerated and that failing to share data in healthcare could cost lives.

The debate in government has become increasingly polarized. Some want to capitalize on efficiency gains, while others fear dependence on a single private company for critical services.

Palantir offers ready-made solutions and a proven track record. “They’ve been successful because the tech works,” said one insider.

At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, waiting lists were reduced by nearly a third using Palantir software. The company signed a £330 million seven-year contract with the NHS to deliver its Federated Data Platform.

Instead of spreadsheets and Post-it notes, the NHS now integrates data into a single system. In its first 18 months, an additional 99,690 patients received operations and 79,321 were removed from waiting lists.

In Northamptonshire hospitals, the system increased patient throughput by 13% and reduced cancellations by 28%. Patients were treated on average 41 days faster.

In December, Palantir was awarded a £240 million three-year contract by the Ministry of Defence to modernize the armed forces and improve battlefield effectiveness.

The software has increased Royal Navy ship availability by 6% by ensuring resources are in the right place at the right time.

It is also used in military planning and targeting. In one evacuation operation, the system identified militia movement and helped reroute civilians safely.

Modern battlefield analysis is now automated: terrain, movement, and risk calculations are processed instantly.

In Ukraine, the system has been used to detect advancing Russian forces using traffic camera footage and to map drone routes in 3D to avoid electronic interference.

The Maven system, built for the US government, is used heavily in Iran, allowing the Pentagon to strike hundreds of targets per day by rapidly analyzing drone and satellite data.

Palantir embraces its controversial image. Its name comes from the all-seeing stones in The Lord of the Rings.

Louis Mosley, Palantir’s UK head, argues that privacy is now an “obsolete concept.” The real issue, he says, is control over how data is used.

He warned of a “crisis of legitimacy” in Western governments and said better use of data is necessary to restore trust.

Palantir says it does not operate in authoritarian states like China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, but will implement policies approved democratically—even controversial ones.

For example, if a future government mandated using NHS data for immigration enforcement, the company says it would comply.

“The question,” Mosley said, “is who gets to use powerful technology, under what conditions, and for what purpose.”

Technology, like fire or gunpowder, amplifies state power—making control over it increasingly important.

Key figures: £330 million — NHS contract
79,321 — patients removed from waiting lists
99,690 — additional operations performed
$360 billion — company valuation