The UK's East Midlands Special Operations Unit has ended its two-year trial of Palantir Technologies' Foundry software and decided not to proceed with a new contract after Home Office funding ended, the BBC reported Monday.
EMSOU began testing Foundry in October 2024 using data from Leicestershire Police to assess its potential use in serious-crime investigations.
"Following the scoping work and assessment of what it would deliver, including our future funding streams, we have taken the decision not to take the project further," Assistant Chief Constable Ian Green told the BBC.
The unit told the UK broadcaster that Palantir must demonstrate it has severed all links with police systems and deleted its data. It also declined to disclose the datasets used or the trial’s cost, citing operational security and commercial confidentiality.
The Latent reached out to Palantir and EMSOU for comment.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International UK's Oliver Feeley-Sprague welcomed the decision. "Palantir has become a growing liability for any public body that values human rights and public confidence," he said.
The development comes as Palantir expands its work with government agencies and promotes AI systems designed for sensitive operations. The company said 11 UK police forces use its software. Its work with law enforcement has included identifying women whose partners had histories of domestic abuse and helping police investigate serious crime, according to the BBC.
Palantir's Maven Smart System is used by the Pentagon to organize intelligence data, including satellite imagery and drone footage. Anthropic's Claude was incorporated into the system, and the Pentagon said on Oct. 6 that it had ceased using Anthropic products after a dispute over safeguards for military applications.