Faced with case demands that exceeded approved workflows, New Zealand police investigators resorted to sending thousands of lines of Chinese audio through Google Translate after major investigations outpaced the tools they were cleared to use.
Records show the shortcut gained traction after officers discovered Whisper AI could process intercepted calls in hours instead of weeks, even as they repeatedly disregarded formal limits on the tool.
Here's what to know
According to RNZ, hundreds of pages of police emails and reports released under New Zealand's Official Information Act describe repeated misuse of artificial intelligence translation tools. In one example, officers used Google Translate to process 350,000 lines of Chinese audio, even though it wasn't a secure service for police work.
The records connect the problem to what RNZ said was Operation Parade, an Auckland cult investigation associated with the killing of Shulai Wang, whose body was found in a bag in Gulf Harbour in July 2024.
In that inquiry, police intercepted calls and about 250 hours of audio across more than 2,500 Mandarin Chinese files. Whisper processed the material in 10 hours, while human translation was estimated at 750 hours and about $50,000.
Investigators used the AI output to sort out which conversations and messages deserved closer scrutiny, while qualified human translators still had to validate evidence.
TCD Picks » Quince Spotlight
💡These best-sellers from Quince deliver affordable, sustainable luxury for all
That initial result was followed by a formal six-month Whisper trial with guardrails. Officers were prohibited from using it on English audio, Māori, or Pacific languages.
However, the evaluation found that officers repeatedly broke those restrictions. In one case, Waikato investigators used AI on English audio and then used it to help prepare a document for disclosure in legal proceedings, despite repeated warnings in the records against using AI for evidentiary purposes.
More background
The papers indicate that workload strain, not just curiosity about new technology, was a major driver of the misuse.
A police report cited by RNZ said investigators under pressure started handling evidence at home on personal devices or sending material through unsecured services, creating the risk of "exposing confidential information."
Police leadership had been warned that "the ongoing compliance is beyond current resourcing," according to the High Tech Crime Group.
Later, Detective Inspector Stu Mills, the Intercept and Technology Operations manager, said the breaches created significant security and privacy risks, even if they were "unfortunate but not unexpected" under the circumstances.
Tools like Whisper can save time and money.
At the same time, AI comes with trade-offs, including heavy electricity and water use for computing, along with risks tied to misuse, weak security, and unintended consequences that can drive up costs for institutions and the public.
What's being done?
Police said they want to introduce advanced crime-fighting technology carefully and transparently.
The documents indicate that after Whisper proved useful, police leaders tried to keep it in a controlled pilot rather than allowing unrestricted use across teams.
That effort did not hold. Police dropped Whisper in March 2025, except for limited one-off cases requiring three levels of sign-off. Several of those exceptions involved English-language transcription from hundreds of prison phone calls.
The same records show police then shifted back toward developing an approved internal option, in part because officers kept turning to workarounds.
Police were incorporating the AI translator into Cellebrite, the phone-extraction tool investigators already use to pull WeChat threads and other data from seized devices.
It remains unclear how police are auditing the tool's use. The released papers offer little insight, even though they suggest the force later made Whisper widely available again.
Mills said, "The lack of a secure, approved solution has driven staff toward these risky workarounds, highlighting the urgent need for a trusted in house capability."
Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
