Met Police chief of Special Constabulary fired after AI uncovers intimate image theft
James Deller, head of the Met's volunteer police force, was dismissed after AI monitoring caught him copying intimate images from his work phone. The misconduct was uncovered via Palantir's Foundry system during a week-long internal operation.
Met's AI surveillance system exposes Special Constabulary chief over intimate images
The Metropolitan Police has dismissed the head of its Special Constabulary after artificial intelligence monitoring revealed he had used a work-issued phone to copy intimate images of a woman, bbc.co.uk reports.
Special Chief Officer James Deller, who led the force's volunteer officers, was sacked following a misconduct hearing on Friday. He will be added to the College of Policing's barred list, permanently preventing him from serving in policing.
Investigators found that between July and August 2025, Deller photographed two intimate images that had been sent to his personal phone. Those images had been shared via WhatsApp's "view once" feature, which is designed to make photos disappear after a single viewing. Deller circumvented the restriction by using his police-issued phone to photograph the images before forwarding them to his personal device and deleting them from his work phone.
The misconduct came to light during a week-long internal operation called Project Galatasaray, which deployed Palantir's Foundry system — an AI-powered platform — to identify corruption and professional misconduct within the Met.
Commander Pete Stevens said Deller had failed to meet the standards expected of him. "His actions were an abuse of the trust put in him and it is right that he is no longer able to serve in policing," Stevens said. He added that Special Constabulary volunteers "deserve to be led by people who demonstrate the highest standards in all parts of their lives."
Palantir controversy deepens
The case marks one of the most prominent results of the Met's use of Palantir technology to date, but it arrives amid sustained controversy over the force's relationship with the US data analytics company.
In April, the Metropolitan Police Federation urged officers to exercise "extreme caution" about carrying Met-issued devices while off duty, following an upgrade to the force's Lawful Business Monitoring software. Federation general secretary Matt Cane said staff had not been informed the upgrade included the introduction of Palantir's AI, appearing to mark its first deployment to monitor Met systems.
The following month, Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee that officers were not under any "additional surveillance in the workplace." Jukes acknowledged that the Met had considered the reputational risks of using what he described as "divisive" technology, but said it helped to identify "unacceptable, dishonest, corrosive behaviours."
The London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac) has blocked the Met from signing a two-year contract with Palantir to extend AI technology into criminal investigations, citing a failure by the force to set out its procurement strategy — a "clear and serious breach" of procedure, Mopac said.
Palantir is now suing Mopac, alleging the office unlawfully blocked the deal after taking the company's "values and ethics" into account, which Palantir argues was an "irrelevant consideration" in procurement law.
Political pressure over government contracts
The dispute has drawn in figures at the highest levels of government. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing growing pressure from Labour MPs and trade unions to end public contracts with Palantir, which was founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and holds agreements with several UK public bodies, including the NHS and the Ministry of Defence.
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who recently joined Palantir, warned against what he characterised as "mob rule" in procurement decisions. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking With Nick Robinson, Watson said: "One of the things I'd say to my former colleagues is, 'Do you want to let the rule of law lead procurement practice, or do you want to let mob rule lead procurement practices? Because you get yourself in a lot of trouble if you go down on the latter one.'"
The Deller case — in which AI monitoring produced a concrete disciplinary outcome — is likely to feature prominently in that ongoing debate, both for those who argue the technology serves a legitimate purpose and those who remain uneasy about its scope.
Source: The Sun