Palantir is a powerful analytic platform designed by Palantir Technologies that compiles and analyzes mass amounts of data from a wide range of sources.

Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, and Stephen Cohen in 2004 and was originally intended for use in national defense.

LAPD used Palantir Gotham, a government intelligence platform, and Palantir Thunderbird, its Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) platform.

Photos are captured and stored constantly, both passively and actively. Some ALPRs are mounted at traffic intersections or along streets and do not move; cameras can also be mounted in temporary locations, as well as being installed on handheld devices and mobile cell phones.

A Palantir spokesperson trains an LAPD officer how to use Palantir at his desk. Image source: thecrimereport.org

A Palantir spokesperson trains an LAPD officer how to use Palantir at his desk. Image source: thecrimereport.org

Who Uses Palantir?

A screenshot taken from a Palantir tech blog in 2008, demonstrating the histogram view that allows filtering by time ranges.

A screenshot taken from a Palantir tech blog in 2008, demonstrating the histogram view that allows filtering by time ranges.

[Palantir software for the military tracks aircraft threats in 2021. Source: c4isrnet.com](https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fb33c2a7-83b4-49fa-9c8f-75211fdd5e64/4a3d632d-9364-4145-a1cd-847d1aecdaa9/Palantir._software.avif)

Palantir software for the military tracks aircraft threats in 2021. Source: c4isrnet.com

LAPD Use of Palantir