Dame Cressida Dick, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is working as an adviser to the US data company Palantir, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported on Tuesday. Palantir and Dame Cressida both confirmed the role in statements to the Bureau, which said she has been paid for the work since September 2025.
The appointment has emerged as Palantir expands its business with British police forces. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police have agreed a five-year contract worth up to £10.1m for the company's Foundry data platform, according to contract details reported on Monday by TechMarketView and PublicTechnology.
Dame Cressida denied lobbying for the company. "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," she said in a statement to the Bureau.
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."
Neither Palantir nor Dame Cressida has said how much she is paid, and the Bureau did not report a figure.
Clive Lewis, the Labour MP and a long-standing critic of the company, told the Bureau: "Dick's appointment raises the same concerns I've expressed about Tom Watson joining Palantir."
Dame Cressida led the Met from 2017 until 2022. She announced her resignation in February 2022 after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, had threatened to remove her, saying she was not doing enough to reform the force or to tackle accusations of misogyny and racism. She said at the time that it was with "huge sadness" that it had become clear Khan "no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue." Before becoming commissioner she spent three years leading UK counter-terrorism policing.
Palantir's dealings with the Met have been contested since her departure. In May the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime blocked a planned £50m contract between the force and the company, saying Scotland Yard had engaged with only one supplier. Palantir has since sued, arguing the decision was unlawful, PublicTechnology reported.
Elsewhere the company has won the contract to replace the national firearms licensing system used by the 43 forces in England and Wales, a procurement run by the Police Digital Service and reported in June. Last month forces in the East Midlands ended a Palantir trial after the Home Office stopped funding it, according to TechMarketView.
Dame Cressida is the latest former public figure to take a role with the company. The former minister Leo Docherty joined in February 2025 with conditions set by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which told him in its advice letter that "Palantir has a significant commercial interest in the UK government" and that he "must have no direct engagement with government on behalf of the company". Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, joined as a senior vice president in September, Novara Media reported.
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