Ex-Met Police Boss Works As Paid Advisor for Palantir

A former head of the Metropolitan police, who was ousted amid scandals over misogyny and racism in the force, is now working as a paid advisor for spytech firm Palantir, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has revealed. 

Cressida Dick resigned as the force’s commissioner in 2022 after London mayor Sadiq Khan publicly said he had lost confidence in her, a move seen as effectively sacking the senior officer. 

In September 2025 she joined Palantir, the Bureau reported on Tuesday, becoming the latest of a number of high-profile public figures taking up work for the firm. 

Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson became the firm’s newest senior vice president in September this year, while former Conservative defence minister Leo Docherty joined the firm in February 2025.  

Palantir has supplied technology to the Israeli military throughout its genocide in Gaza and has worked with ICE amid its campaign of abductions and killings in the US. 

Palantir told the Bureau that Dick’s role was to advise the firm “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.”

Dick told the outlet: “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.”

In 2005, Dick was in charge of the operation during which police shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes after mistaking him for a suspect in the 7/7 bombings. 

Earlier this week, the Citizens reported that Palantir had won a five-year contract with Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police forces worth £10m. Palantir also has a £9m contract to oversee the firearms licensing system for all of the UK’s police forces.

“It never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to pay money to Palantir for the shoddy goods that they deliver,” Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat MP, told the Bureau. “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.”