AI spy program roots out hundreds of rogue police officers after Scotland Yard lets it loose on internal systems

By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME AND SECURITY EDITOR Published: 00:45, 25 April 2026 | Updated: 00:54, 25 April 2026 Hundreds of rogue police officers face the sack after Scotland Yard used an artificial intelligence spy program to unearth misconduct, corruption and criminality. In an unprecedented crackdown, Britain's biggest force secretly unleashed the AI tool to root out bad behaviour - letting it loose on internal systems which monitor sickness levels, overtime, expenses, entry to buildings and public complaints. The controversial tool was supplied by the US tech company Palantir, which also works for the Israeli military and Donald Trump's ICE operation. It discovered officers engaged in serious corruption and criminality, including the abuse of authority for sexual purposes, fraud and sexual assault. Senior officers had been abusing Met systems for years, logging false claims for overtime, scamming systems to get extra days off, lying about working from home and hiding their membership of the Freemasons. Now Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is considering whether similar AI programmes could be used in investigations to flag the most dangerous predators and crime hotspots. In a week-long AI pilot, which was run without staff and officers knowing, Palantir unearthed evidence of officers sexually harassing colleagues and abusing HR systems to earn extra pay. As a result, 100 are being investigated for gross misconduct and 615 have received warning notices. Of those cases, 598 concern the abuse of the IT shift system for officers' personal or financial gain. Around 42 senior officers from chief inspector to chief superintendent rank face losing their jobs after lying about being in the office when they were working from home in breach of Met guidelines, which state they must be in the office at least 80 per cent of their time. Metropolitan Police officers on duty. In an unprecedented crackdown, Britain's biggest force secretly unleashed an AI tool to root out bad behaviour Pictured: New Scotland Yard the Met Police's headquarters. Hundreds of rogue police officers face the sack after the force used an artificial intelligence spy program to unearth misconduct, corruption and criminality There are also 12 officers facing gross misconduct proceedings for not declaring that they are Freemasons and a further 30 officers are still under suspicion. Three officers have been suspended and two arrested for abusing their role. Red flags were raised about another 30 officers for 'suspicious behaviour', but the force say that is 'currently uncorroborated'. The AI tool analysed internal data dating back years to discover the culprits. Sir Mark commissioned the project in the wake of the Charing Cross scandal when BBC Panorama filmed racist and misogynistic officers. Since he took on the UK's top policing job in 2022, 1,500 officers have been sacked but Sir Mark believed AI could unearth bad behaviour that had not hitherto been spotted. 'We've made all this effort on integrity, the biggest such initiative ever. 1,500 officers dismissed, but we've still got further to dig down for the people who are determined not to change', he told the Daily Mail. 'Those numbers [of officer wrongdoing discovered] are extraordinary.' He said it was 'soul destroying' for 'front-line people who are working their hearts out' when there were 'colleagues who were scamming the duty system to get extra days off for extra payments - it's like … there's a person in the corner who's skiving. 'And likewise on the leadership front, the leaders who are giving everything to help make the Met better for the public and some of their colleagues are swinging the lead, it is not good enough. This is the Met using technology, data and stronger legal powers to confront poor behaviour. 'The vast majority of our officers and staff serve London with dedication and integrity and rightly expect us to act firmly against those who abuse their position or undermine public trust. By bringing together the information we already lawfully hold, we can identify risk earlier, act faster and be fairer and more consistent.' But the move has angered the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers. It called the approach 'automated suspicion', saying: 'Officers must not be subjected to opaque or untested tools that risk misinterpreting unsustainable workload pressures, sickness or overtime as indicators of wrongdoing.' This week MPs called for the Government to review its Palantir contracts after the company published a manifesto on X extolling the benefits of US power, which some described as 'the ramblings of a super villain'. The Met is now considering investing in AI programmes to analyse crime data. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.