The DOJ used Palantir to build an app to help find criminals—and then shut it down

Internal emails show that DOJ moved to decommission SHIELD, a Palantir-built mobile app used by federal law enforcement to search identity and criminal records databases in the field.

[Photo: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Recently uncovered documents show that the Department of Justice is no longer using a mobile app, built by Palantir, designed to help law enforcement officials search criminal records databases while operating in the field. 

Thousands of people, including agents at the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appear to have ended up using the app, which was called “SHIELD”. But by February 2023, the agency had changed its approach and moved to shut it down, according to emails obtained by Fast Company. It’s a reminder that while the government is racing to........

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