Secret police#United States

{{anchor|Secret police agencies}}{{Main|List of secret police organizations|List of historical secret police organizations}}

Egypt is home to Africa's and the Middle East's first internal security service: The State Security Investigations Service. Initially it was formed during the British occupation of Egypt as the Intelligence wing of the regular police. After the 1952 coup, the State Security apparatus was reformed and reorganized to suit the security concerns of the new socialist regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser. The SSIS was made a separate branch of the Ministry of Interior and separated from the regular police command. During the Nasser era, It was intensively trained by the Soviet KGB on coercive interrogation techniques, mass surveillance, public intimidation and political suppression. The SSIS was responsible for suppressing opposition groups to Nasser and his successors (Sadat and Mubarak). Torture was a systematic practice by that repressive apparatus. During the War on Terror, The SSIS used to receive suspected terrorists that were sent to Egypt from the United States and used to interrogate them using torture. After the 2011 revolution, demonstrators demanded that the service be dissolved and several buildings (including the headquarters in Nasr City) were stormed by protesters that gathered evidence of torture tools, secret cells and documents showing surveillance on citizens. On March 15 2011, Egypt's Minister of Interior announced the dissolution of the State Security and declared the new National Security Agency would replace it and be responsible for its internal security and counter-terrorist duties.

From 1974 to 1987, Ethiopia was ruled by a communist military junta known as the Derg (in 1987 the country formally reformed into a presidential republic, but the same people remained in power until May 1991). The Derg built a police state with a brutal military government. The brutality of its regime was particularly evident in the 1976-1978, during military campaign, called Red Terror, against perceived opponents. To exercise total control over the country, the Derg needed a secret police. And it formed one in August 1978: it became known as the Central Revolutionary Investigation Department (CRID). CRID was responsible for suppressing dissent and identifying targets for state repression in Ethiopia. Department also has been monitoring opposition in government-controlled areas and regime dissidents. CRID is considered to be the most advanced institution of violence in Derg's Ethiopia.{{Cite book |last=Metekia |first=Tadesse Simie |title=Prosecution of core crimes in Ethiopia: domestic practice vis-à-vis international standards |date=2021 |publisher=Koninklijke Brill NV |isbn=978-90-04-44726-4 |series=International criminal law series |location=Leiden, The Netherlands}}

In Uganda, the State Research Bureau (SRB) was a secret police organisation for President Idi Amin. The Bureau tortured many Ugandans, operating on behalf of a regime responsible for more than five hundred thousand violent deaths.{{Cite web|title=BBC News {{!}} Africa {{!}} Idi Amin's legacy of terror|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/404630.stm|access-date=2021-02-09|website=news.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite web|title=Uganda releases former head of Amin's secret police|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/12/03/Uganda-releases-former-head-of-Amins-secret-police/4100502434000/|access-date=2021-02-09|website=UPI|language=en}} The SRB attempted to infiltrate every area of Ugandan life.{{Cite news|last=Darnton|first=John|date=1979-04-18|title=Secret-Police Records Reveal Vast Paranoia Of Idi Amin's Regime (Published 1979)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/18/archives/secretpolice-records-reveal-vast-paranoia-of-idi-amins-regime.html|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0362-4331}}

In Zimbabwe, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was the secret police of President Robert Mugabe who is responsible for detaining, torturing, mass beating, raping and starving thousands of civilians on the orders of Mugabe.

In East Asia, the Embroidered Uniform Guard ({{zh|t=錦衣衞|p=Jǐnyīwèi}}) of the Ming dynasty was founded in the 1360s by the Hongwu Emperor and served as the dynasty's secret police until the collapse of Ming rule in 1644. Originally, their main functions were to serve as the emperor's bodyguard and to spy on his subjects and report any plots of rebellion or regicide directly to the emperor. Over time, the organization took on law enforcement and judicial functions and grew to be immensely powerful, with the power to overrule ordinary judicial rulings and to investigate, interrogate, and punish anyone, including members of the imperial family. In 1420, a second secret police organization run by eunuchs, known as the Eastern Depot ({{zhi|t=東廠|p=Dōng Chǎng}}), was formed to suppress suspected political opposition to the usurpation of the throne by the Yongle Emperor. Combined, these two organizations made the Ming dynasty one of the world's first police states.{{Cite book|title=Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China|date=2011|publisher=UBC Press|author1=James A. Flath |author2=Norman Smith |isbn=9780774819558|location=Vancouver|oclc=758370695}}

The Ministry of State Security ({{zhi|s=国家安全部|p=Guójiā Ānquán Bù}}) in modern China controls a network of provincial and local State Security Bureaus, integrated with local Public Security Bureaus which make up part of the policing system of China. The MSS has its own branch of the People's Police, known as the State Security Police, with officers which have the dual tasks of law enforcement and repressing political dissent.{{Cite web |title=Crime and Policing in China {{!}} Office of Justice Programs |url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/crime-and-policing-china |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=www.ojp.gov}} State security bureaus and public security bureaus are functionally co-located within the same buildings as each other.{{Cite web |last=Bishop |first=Bill |title=MSS goes with "People's Leader 人民领袖"; Dual circulation; US South China Sanctions; Missile tests; TikTok |url=https://sinocism.com/p/mss-goes-with-peoples-leader-dual |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=sinocism.com |language=en|url-access=subscription}}{{Self-published source|date=November 2024|expert=y|reason=This Substack appears to be written by a recognized China specialist}} The MSS and the Ministry of Public Security control the overall national police network of China and the two agencies share resources and closely coordinate with each other.{{Cite web |last=greatcharlie |date=2020-11-23 |title=Commentary: Maintaining the Harmony between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security in an Apparent Totalitarian China |url=https://greatcharlie.com/2020/11/23/commentary-maintaining-the-harmony-between-the-ministry-of-public-security-and-the-ministry-of-state-security-in-an-apparent-totalitarian-china/ |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=greatcharlie |language=en}}{{Better source needed|date=December 2023}}

In British Hong Kong, the Special Branch was established in 1934 originally as an anti-communist squad under MI5 with assistance from MI6.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/02684527.2017.1289695|title = MI5 and the Cold War in South-East Asia: Examining the performance of Security Intelligence Far East (SIFE), 1946–1963| journal=Intelligence and National Security| volume=32| issue=6| pages=797–816|year = 2017|last1 = Shaw|first1 = Alexander Nicholas|s2cid = 73533752| url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/111406/10/MI5%20and%20the%20Cold%20War%20in%20South%20East%20Asia%20examining%20the%20performance%20of%20Security%20Intelligence%20Far%20East%20SIFE%201946%201963.pdf| doi-access=free}} The branch later joined the Crime Department of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in 1946 and focused on preventing pro-KMT rightists and pro-CCP leftists from infiltrating the colony.{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140602202202/http://www.scmp.com/article/998947/kmt-spies-infiltrated-colonial-police|url=http://www.scmp.com/article/998947/kmt-spies-infiltrated-colonial-police|title=KMT spies infiltrated colonial police|last=Seawright|first=Stephen|access-date=21 January 2013|archive-date=2 June 2014|newspaper=South China Morning Post|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

The National Security Department in the current HKSAR is a secret police agency created after the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law.{{Cite web |date=2020-07-01 |title=【最新】警務處已設國家安全處作國安法執法部門 |url=https://news.now.com/home/local/player?newsId=396365 |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=Now 新聞 |language=zh-hk}} The NSD has accused and arrested dissenting voices in Hong Kong for "endangering" the national security, including pro-democracy politicians, protestors, and journalists.{{Cite web |last=Ho |first=Kelly |date=2021-02-02 |title=Hong Kong police have arrested 97 under national security law, as commissioner rejects complaints of 'white terror' |url=http://hongkongfp.com/2021/02/02/hong-kong-police-have-arrested-97-under-national-security-law-as-commissioner-rejects-complaints-of-white-terror/ |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=Hong Kong Free Press HKFP |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Hong Kong jails man, 24, for nine years under national security law {{!}} Hong Kong {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/30/hong-kong-jails-man-24-nine-years-under-national-security-law-tong-ying-kit |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=amp.theguardian.com|date=30 July 2021 }} Some websites were also reportedly banned by the department, including Hong Kong Watch.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-14 |title=Hong Kong Watch website blocked by internet firms in Hong Kong |url=https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2022/2/14/hong-kong-watch-website-blocked-by-internet-firms-in-hong-kong |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=Hong Kong Watch |language=en-GB}}

In the Middle East, located in Baghdad. Shurta was one of the most both powerful intelligence and secret police organizations of the Abbasid era which was led by the Abbasids in the 8th and 9th centuries during the Golden Age of Islam.

In Japan, the Kenpeitai existed from 1881 to 1945 and were described as secret police by the Australian War Memorial.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Stolen Years: Australian Prisoners of War|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/stolenyears/ww2/japan/sandakan/index.asp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121014148/https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/stolenyears/ww2/japan/sandakan/index.asp|archive-date=2010-01-21|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Australian War Memorial}}{{Cite web|title=MEMBERS OF THE KENPEITAI (JAPANESE SECRET POLICE) AND THE HIKARI KIKAN (JAPANESE MILITARY POLICE) ...|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C22331|access-date=2021-02-09|website=www.awm.gov.au|language=en}} It had an equivalent branch in the Imperial Japanese Navy known as the Tokkeitai. However, their civilian counterpart known as the Tokkō was formed in 1911. Its task consisted of controlling political groups and ideologies in Imperial Japan, resembling closer the other secret police agencies of the time period. For this it earned the nickname "the Thought Police".W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan, p. 184, {{ISBN|0-312-04077-6}}.Edwin P. Hoyt, Japan's War, p. 113. {{ISBN|0-07-030612-5}}.

The Korean Central Intelligence Agency or KCIA is a secret police agency which acted extra-judicially and was involved in such activities as kidnapping a presidential candidate and the assassination of Park Chung-hee, among other things.{{Cite news|last=Halloran|first=Richard|date=1973-08-20|title=Seoul's Vast Intelligence Agency Stirs Wide Fear (Published 1973)|language=en-US|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/20/archives/seouls-vast-intelligence-agency-stirs-wide-fear-politician-spirited.html|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Chapman|first=William|date=1979-10-30|title=Army Seizes KCIA Reins|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/10/30/army-seizes-kcia-reins/b4d4d59b-775f-4053-b3f1-849fdcece020/|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0190-8286}}

The General Intelligence Directorate or the GID was the secret police organization of the Assad regime which ruled Syria that suppressed the people until it disbanded in December 2024 during the Syrian Revolution with a popular uprising against the dictator Bashar al-Assad when he fled to Russia that night.

In Taiwan, the National Security Bureau, established in 1954, is the regime's main intelligence agency. The Taiwan Garrison Command acted as a secret police/national security body which existed as a branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The agency was established at the end of World War II and operated throughout the Cold War. It was disbanded on 1 August 1992. It was responsible for suppressing activities viewed as promoting democracy and Taiwan independence.

Image:GDR Stasi Dep M 4.jpg to re-glue envelopes after mail had been opened for examination]]

Secret police organizations originated in 18th-century Europe after the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna. Such operations were established in an effort to detect any possible conspiracies or revolutionary subversion. The peak of secret-police operations in most of Europe was 1815 to 1860, "when restrictions on voting, assembly, association, unions and the press were so severe in most European countries that opposition groups were forced into conspiratorial activities."Robert Justin Goldstein, Political Repression in 19th Century Europe (1983; Routledge 2013 ed.) The Geheime Staatspolizei of Austria and the Geheimpolizei of Prussia were particularly notorious during this period.{{Cite web|title=Mathieu Deflem: International Policing in Nineteenth-Century Europe: The Police Union of German States, 1851-1866|url=https://deflem.blogspot.com/1996/09/international-policing-in-19th-century.html|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Mathieu Deflem}} After 1860, the use of secret police declined due to increasing liberalization, except in autocratic regimes such as Tsarist Russia.

In Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police, Gestapo) and Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police, GFP) were a secret police organization used to identify and eliminate opposition, including suspected organized resistance. Its claimed main duty, according to a 1936 law, was "to investigate and suppress all anti-State tendencies".{{Cite journal|last=Gellately|first=Robert|date=1988|title=The Gestapo and German Society: Political Denunciation in the Gestapo Case Files|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1881013|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=60|issue=4|pages=654–694|doi=10.1086/600440|jstor=1881013|s2cid=154408648|issn=0022-2801}} One method used to spy on citizens was to intercept letters or telephone calls. They encouraged ordinary Germans to inform on each other.{{Cite web|title=Introduction - Control and opposition in Nazi Germany - CCEA - GCSE History Revision - CCEA|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2p3k2p/revision/1|access-date=2021-02-09|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB}} As part of the Reich Security Main Office, it was also a key organizer of the Holocaust. Although the Gestapo had a relatively small number of personnel (32,000 in 1944), "it maximized these small resources through informants and a large number of denunciations from the local population".[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gestapo Gestapo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130185223/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gestapo |date=2022-01-30 }}, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

After the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, Germany was split into West and East Germany. East Germany became a socialist state and ruled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. It was closely aligned with communist Russia and the Soviet Union. It had secret police, commonly referred to as the Stasi, which made use of an extensive network of civilian informers.Gary Bruce, The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 81-83. From the 1970's, the main form of political, cultural and religious repression practiced by the Stasi, was a form of 'silent repression'{{cite book |last1=Mike Dennis |first1=Norman LaPorte |title=State and Minorities in Communist East Germany |date=2011 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-0-857-45-195-8 |page=8 |chapter=The Stasi and Operational Subversion}} called Zersetzung ("Decomposition"). This involved the sustained use of covert psychological harassment methods against people, which were designed to cause mental and emotional health problems, and thereby debilitate them and cause them to become socially isolated.{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy: quiet repression and preventive decomposition}} Directed-energy weapons are considered by some survivors and analysts to have also been used as a constituent part of Zersetzung methods, although this is not definitely proven.{{cite book |last1=Krishnan |first1=Armin |title=Military Neuroscience and the Coming Age of Neurowarfare |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-315-59542-9 |page=205}}

The House of Terror museum in Budapest displays the headquarters for the Arrow Cross Party, which killed hundreds of Jews in its basement, among other targets considered "enemies of the race-based state".{{Cite web|title=A History Lesson in Budapest|url=https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/history-lesson-budapest|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Pulitzer Center|language=en}} The same building was used by the State Protection Authority (or ÁVH) secret police. The Soviet-aligned ÁVH moved into the former fascist police headquarters and used it to torture and execute state opponents.{{Cite web|last=McKay|first=Barry|date=|editor-last=Hairsine|editor-first=Kate|title=House of Terror explores Hungarian secret police methods {{!}} DW {{!}} 31.10.2009|url=https://www.dw.com/en/house-of-terror-explores-hungarian-secret-police-methods/a-4834253|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-09|website=DW.COM|language=en-GB}}

In the Fascist Italy (1922-1943) and the Italian Social Republic (RSI), OVRA were a fascist Italian secret police organization.

{{See also|Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies}}

Ivan the Terrible implemented Oprichnina in Russia between 1565 and 1572. In the Russian Empire, the secret police forces were the Third Section of the Imperial Chancery and then the Okhrana. Agents of the Okhrana were vital in identifying and suppressing opponents of the Tsar. The Okhrana engaged in torture and infiltration of opponents.{{Cite web|title=Tsarist methods of control - state infrastructure - Security of the Tsarist state before 1905 - Higher History Revision|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9qnsbk/revision/3|access-date=2021-02-09|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB}} They infiltrated labor unions, political parties, and newspapers.{{Cite web|title=Okhranka {{!}} Russian police organization|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Okhranka|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}} After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union established the Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, and MVD.Stephen J. Lee, Russia and the USSR, 1855-1991: Autocracy and Dictatorship (Routledge, 2006), passim. Cheka, as an authorized secret police force under the rule of the Bolsheviks, suppressed political opponents during the Red Terror. It also enacted counterintelligence operations such as Operation Trust, in which it set up a fake anti-Bolshevik organization to identify opponents. It was the temporary forerunner to the KGB, a later secret police agency used for similar purposes.{{Cite web|title=Cheka {{!}} Soviet secret police|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cheka|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}} The NKVD participated in the Great Purge under Stalin.{{Cite web|title=Secret Police|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/secr.html|access-date=2021-02-09|website=www.loc.gov}}

In Cuba, President Fulgencio Batista's secret police, known as the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (or BRAC), suppressed political opponents such as the 26th of July Movement through methods including violent interrogations.{{Cite web|location=Havana|first=Philip|last=Deane|date=1959-01-04|title=Castro's men pour into Havana|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/1959/jan/04/cuba|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2021-06-07|archive-date=2021-06-07|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210607022102/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1959/jan/04/cuba}}{{Cite book|last1=Kirkpatrick|first1=Lyman B. Jr.|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/kirkpatrick.htm|title=The Real CIA|publisher=Ground Zero Books, Ltd.|year=1968|isbn=9780809001217|location=Silver Spring, MD, USA|pages=|chapter=Chapter 7 - Batista's Cuba}}

Under the Communist Party of Cuba, the Ministry of the Interior has served a number of secret policing functions. As recently as 1999, the Human Rights Watch reported that repression of dissidents was routine, albeit harsher after heightened periods of opposition activity.{{Cite web|title=CUBA'S REPRESSIVE MACHINERY: VIII. Routine Repression|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-08.htm#P1539_351988|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Human Rights Watch|url-status=live|archive-date=2021-06-07|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210607022550/https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-08.htm}} The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under the US State Department reported that Cuba's Ministry of the Interior utilizes a network of informants known as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (or CDR) to monitor government opponents.{{Cite web|publisher=US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor|title=2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Cuba|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/4da56dd4a5.html|access-date=2021-02-09|via=UN High Commissioner for Refugees|language=en|url-status=live|archive-date=2021-06-07|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210607022820/https://www.refworld.org/docid/4da56dd4a5.html}} Secret state police have operated in secret among CDR groups, and most adult Cubans are officially members. CDR are tasked with informing on other Cubans and monitoring activity in their neighborhoods.{{Cite journal|last=Colomer |first=Josep M.|date=2000|title=Watching Neighbors: The Cuban Model of Social Control|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24486170|journal=Cuban Studies|volume=31|pages=118–138|jstor=24486170|issn=0361-4441}}

During the Truman Doctrine, Mexican president Miguel Alemán Valdés created DFS to combat communist opposition. The agency was later replaced by DISEN in 1985 after DFS agents were working for the Guadalajara Cartel. In 1989, it was replaced by CISEN.

File:Rudolf Abel Verhaftung.png by the FBI]]

In Mississippi, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (or "Sov-Com") was a state agency given unusual authority by the governor of Mississippi from 1956 to 1977, to investigate and police private citizens in order to uphold racial segregation. This authority was used to suppress and spy on the activities of civil rights workers, along with others suspected of sentiments contrary to white supremacy.{{Cite journal|last=Cook|first=Karen|date=2013|title=Struggles Within: Lura G. Currier, the Mississippi Library Commission, and Library Services to African Americans|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43737455|journal=Information & Culture|volume=48|issue=1|pages=142|doi=10.7560/IC48108|jstor=43737455|s2cid=144408708 |issn=2164-8034}} Agents from the Sov-Com wiretapped and bugged citizens of Mississippi, and historians identify the agency as a secret police force.{{Cite book|last=Dittmer|first=John|title=Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-252-06507-1|location=Urbana and Chicago|pages=60}}{{Cite book|last=Bowers|first=Rick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p-UTHPSXBZoC&pg=PA38|title=Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement|date=2010|publisher=National Geographic Books|isbn=978-1-4263-0596-2|language=en}}{{Cite magazine|last=Hertzberg|first=Hendrik|title="Breach of Peace"|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/hendrik-hertzberg/breach-of-peace|access-date=2021-02-09|magazine=The New Yorker|date=24 February 2009|language=en-us}} Among other things, the Sov-Com collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan and engaged in jury tampering to harass targets.{{Cite web|last=Teepen|first=Tom|date=1998-03-29|title=Mississippi panel terrorized blacks|url=https://www.deseret.com/1998/3/29/19371486/mississippi-panel-terrorized-blacks|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Deseret News|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Sack|first=Kevin|date=1998-03-18|title=Mississippi Reveals Dark Secrets of a Racist Time (Published 1998)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/18/us/mississippi-reveals-dark-secrets-of-a-racist-time.html|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0362-4331}} The agency ceased to function in 1973, but was not officially dissolved until 1977.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: An Agency History|url=http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?id=243|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205182453/http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?id=243|archive-date=2019-12-05|access-date=2021-02-09|website=mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us}}{{Cite web|title=MS Digital Archives|url=https://da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/scagencycasehistory.php|access-date=2021-02-09|website=MS Digital Archives|language=en}} The Sov-Com served as a model for the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, and the Alabama State Sovereignty Commission.

In private writings in 1945, President Harry S. Truman wrote that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (under Director J. Edgar Hoover) was tending towards becoming a secret police force:

We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F.B.I. is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandles [sic] and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals. They also have a habit of sneering at local law enforcement officers.{{Cite web|title=May 12, 1945 {{!}} Harry S. Truman|url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/longhand-notes-presidential-file-1944-1953/may-12-1945|access-date=2021-02-09|website=www.trumanlibrary.gov}}{{Cite book|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVVffTwVVy4C&pg=PA22|title=Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman|date=1997|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1119-4|location=|pages=22|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Sherrill|first=Robert|date=1980-11-02|title=Harry S. Truman: A President in Private|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1980/11/02/harry-s-truman-a-president-in-private/a6cc8603-b0ae-4dff-b5f0-10dfa63499dc/|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0190-8286}}

During the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship, between 1930 and 1946, the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS) was the government's secret police.{{cite web |last1=Viviane Godinho Corrêa |first1=Michelle |title=DOPS - Departamento de Ordem Política e Social - História |url=https://www.infoescola.com/historia/dops/ |website=InfoEscola |access-date=8 August 2021 |language=pt-BR}}

During the military dictatorship in Brazil, DOPS was employed by the military regime along with the Department of Information Operations - Center for Internal Defense Operations (or DOI-CODI) and the National Intelligence Service (or SNI), and engaged in kidnappings, torture, and attacks against theaters and bookstores.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1997|title=Brazil - The National Intelligence Service, 1964-90|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+br0121)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405014912/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+br0121)|archive-date=2015-04-05|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Library of Congress}}

The National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA, was a powerful secret police agency under the rule of Augusto Pinochet, which was charged with killings and torture related to repression of political opponents.{{Cite news|last=de Onis|first=Juan|date=1977-08-13|title=Secret Police Agency Is Abolished in Chile|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/13/archives/secret-police-agency-is-abolished-in-chile-chile-disbands-its.html|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0362-4331}} Chilean government investigations found that over 30,000 people were tortured by the agency.{{Cite web|author=Mariano Castillo|date=2017-06-03|title=Chile convicts 106 former intelligence agents|url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/03/americas/chile-secret-police-convicted/index.html|access-date=2021-02-09|website=CNN Digital|language=en}}

During the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the Seguridad Nacional secret police investigated, arrested, tortured, and assassinated political opponents to the Venezuelan government.{{cite web|last=Ramírez Delgado|first=María|date=11 February 2021|title=El Miedo que nos Enseñó la Seguridad Nacional. A Propósito del 23 de Enero|trans-title=The Fear National Security Taught Us. About 23 January|url=https://www.fundacionciev.com/el-miedo-que-nos-enseno-la-seguridad-nacional-a-proposito-del-23-de-enero/|access-date=20 March 2021|website=Fundacionciev|language=es}}{{cite web|last=Damiano|first=Daniela|date=30 November 2015|title=La Dictadura de Pérez Jiménez no Hizo de Venezuela una Potencia|trans-title=The Pérez Jiménez Dictatorship did not make Venezuela a Power|url=https://amnistia.ning.com/profiles/blogs/el-irrespeto-a-los-dd-hh-durante-el-regimen-de-perez-jimenez-no-d|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914203726/https://amnistia.ning.com/profiles/blogs/el-irrespeto-a-los-dd-hh-durante-el-regimen-de-perez-jimenez-no-d|archive-date=14 September 2018|access-date=20 March 2021|website=Amnistia|language=es}} From 1951 until 1953, it operated a prison camp on {{Interlanguage link|Isla Guasina|lt=Guasina Island|es}}, which was effectively a forced labour camp. The Seguridad Nacional was abolished following the overthrow of Pérez Jiménez on 23 January 1958.{{cite web|last=López F.|first=Carlos Eduardo|date=4 December 2016|title=#MemoriaFotográfica: A la Caza de la Seguridad Nacional|trans-title=# PhotoMemory: Hunting for National Security|url=https://www.elimpulso.com/2016/12/04/memoriafotografica-la-caza-la-seguridad-nacional/|access-date=20 March 2021|website=El Impulso|language=es}}

During the crisis in Venezuela and Venezuelan protests, Vice Presidents Tareck El Aissami and Delcy Rodríguez have been accused of using SEBIN to oppress political demonstrations. SEBIN director and general Manuel Cristopher Figuera reported that SEBIN would torture political demonstrators during interrogation sessions.{{cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFHLYABYiS8.html| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/HFHLYABYiS8| archive-date=2021-11-17 | url-status=live|title=CÓDIGO 58- Entrevista a Manuel Cristopher Figuera (Jueves 11 DE JULIO 2019) 3/5|website=www.youtube.com| date=12 July 2019}}{{cbignore}}

Ilan Berman and J. Michael Waller describe the secret police as central to totalitarian regimes and "an indispensable device for the consolidation of power, neutralization of the opposition, and construction of a single-party state". In addition to these activities, secret police may also be responsible for tasks not related to suppressing internal dissent, such as gathering foreign intelligence, engaging in counterintelligence, organizing border security, and guarding government buildings and officials. Secret police forces sometimes endure even after the fall of a totalitarian regime.

Arbitrary detention, abduction and forced disappearance, torture, and assassination are all tools wielded by secret police "to prevent, investigate, or punish (real or imagined) opposition."{{Cite book|last=Dragomir|first=Elna|title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Surveillance, Security, and Privacy|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|year=2018|editor-last=Arrigo|editor-first=Bruce A.|pages=753–56|chapter=Police State}} Because secret police typically act with great discretionary powers "to decide what is a crime" and are a tool used to target political opponents, they operate outside the rule of law.{{Cite book|last=Gaus|first=Gerald F.|title=Justificatory Liberalism: An Essay on Epistemology and Political Theory|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|pages=196}}

People apprehended by the secret police are often arbitrarily arrested and detained without due process. While in detention, arrestees may be tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment. Suspects may not receive a public trial, and instead may be convicted in a kangaroo court-style show trial, or by a secret tribunal. Secret police known to have used these approaches in history included the secret police of East Germany (the Ministry for State Security or Stasi) and Portuguese PIDE.{{Cite book|last=Stove|first=R. J.|title=The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims. Encounter Books|year=2003|isbn=1-893554-66-X|location=San Francisco}}

A single secret service may pose a potential threat to the central political authority. Political scientist Sheena Chestnut Greitens writes that:

When it comes to their security forces, autocrats face a fundamental 'coercing dilemma' between empowerment and control. ... Autocrats must empower their security forces with enough coercing capacity to enforce internal order and conduct external defense. Equally important to their survival, however, they must control that capacity, to ensure it is not turned against them.{{Cite book|last=Greitens|first=Sheena Chestnut|title=Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2016|pages=23–25}}

• Increasing fragmentation (i.e., dividing powers among the regime security apparatuses to prevent "any single agency from amassing enough political power to carry out a coup") and
• Increasing exclusivity (i.e., purging the regime security apparatus to favor familial, social, ethnic, religious, and tribal groups perceived as more loyal).

{{Portal|Law}}

• Chekism
• Committee of Public Safety
• Counterintelligence state
• Death squad
• Extrajudicial punishment
• Gestapo
• High policing
• List of historical secret police organizations
• List of secret police organizations
• Mass surveillance
• McCarthyism
• NKVD
• Police state
• Thought Police
• Secret Service

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-260931/police High Policing: The Protection of National Security]

{{Secret police of Communist Europe}}

{{types of law enforcement agencies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret Police}}

Category:Authoritarianism

Category:Law enforcement

Category:Law enforcement units

Category:National security

Category:Political repression

Category:Secrecy

Category:Totalitarianism