On 22 April, the Leicester Gazettepublished a contract between Leicestershire Police and shady tech firm Palantir. The only problem? Much of the information has been redacted – and a good deal of the rest is just boilerplate.
Leicestershire Police only agreed to release the contract after a long battle over Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. As such, the redactions are yet another slap in the face for the concept of public scrutiny.
The news comes in the midst of increasing pressure on ministers to sever links with Palantir over its ties to Israel and the Trump regime. For its part, the surveillance firm recently published a political manifesto on social media, which Yanis Varoufakis summarised as:
Ethics is for suckers. The West needs more of Palantir’s murderous software.
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Leicestershire Police signed its contract with Palantir back in October 2024, for an eye-watering £818,750. It was the first UK police force to sign a deal with the US-based firm. The East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU), an organised crime and counter-terrorism grouping, also had a hand in the agreement.
Over the course of 2025, the Leicester Gazette made a series of FOI requests for details on the contract and the specific AI tools that the police were using. However, Leicestershire Police chose to block the requests, arguing that they had exemptions for law enforcement and national security reasons.
When the Gazettedisputed the rebuff, the force tried to characterise the FOIs as “vexatious”. However, on 5 January 2026, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruled that Leicestershire Police must release the document. Minus, that is, a confidential list of redactions.
Most of the remaining information consists in definitions of contract terms. You can read it for yourself at this link. However, the Gazettenoted that:
The contract confirms that Leicestershire Police has deployed Palantir’s controversial Foundry data platform, the same algorithmic system previously scrutinised for its use in the NHS during its Covid-19 response.
The agreement also includes provisions for four optional one-year extensions, despite the initial one-year term outlined in the contract notice. It’s not known whether Leicestershire Police have chosen to extend the contract.
Nectar and Foundry
However, the FOIs for information on the force’s use of Palantir’s ‘Nectar’ and ‘Foundry’ systems were another story. On 14 April, the regulator ruled that:
by failing to respond to the request within the statutory time limit, Leicestershire Police breached sections 1(1)(a) and 10(1) of FOIA. The Commissioner requires Leicestershire Police to issue a fresh response to the request which does not rely on section 14 of FOIA. Leicestershire Police should confirm whether or not information in scope of the request is held.
In return, Leicestershire Police issued yet another rebuff. This time, they cited security concerns, rather than the vexatious nature of the request. The force acknowledged that there was a public interest in disclosure, as:
this would provide the public with confidence that the procurement process is conducted fairly, and the use of the technology is in line with our legal obligations.
However, too many organised criminals and terrorists are apparently champing at the bit to get one over Leicestershire Police. The force reasoned that:
To disclose the justification and any further details for why a contract was awarded and how the technology is being used, would be to disclose the operational purpose and would undermine EMSOU policing activity. It is imperative to the public interest that we ensure that the tactics, methods and tools that are used are not compromised, as this simply undermines the purpose for which they are employed to begin with.
‘We can’t let you know if we’ve doing creepy surveillance because then the criminals would know we’re doing creepy surveillance’. Don’t know about you, but we’re convinced.
How deep is Palantir embedded?
Back in February 2025, the Good Law Project picked up the Palantir-Leicestershire Police story. The non-profit reported that:
Palantir has worked with US agencies accused of separating children from their parents, wrongfully detaining thousands of US citizens and forcibly sterilising women. The day after Israel was accused of genocide at the International Criminal Court, the company signed a deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to provide “support for war-related missions”. And Palantir’s predictive policing project in LA was cancelled in 2019 after accusations that it entrenched racism and didn’t reduce crime.
Good Law Project has been sending freedom of information requests to all 45 police forces in the UK to ask if they also had deals with this dangerous firm. Thirty-five of them refused to answer, citing national security and law enforcement exemptions.
Following the ICO’s recent rulings, those national security and law enforcement exemptions will no longer hold water – at least on the subject of whether or not the contracts exist.
More recently, the Guardianannounced on 22 April 2026 that the Metropolitan Police are currently engaged in talks with Palantir. Reportedly, the London force is looking to “automate intelligence analysis for criminal investigations”. We’ll have a more detailed look at the story out later.
In the mean time, we must ask: just how many UK police forces have struck deals with this openly authoritarian surveillance company? And, beyond that, Leicestershire Police have already proven that they will try to deny a legitimate FOI for bogus reasons – why should we believe them now?
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