Secret police (orpolitical police)[3] arepolice,intelligence, orsecurity agencies that engage incovert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents anddissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ofauthoritarian andtotalitarian regimes.[4] They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence.[5] They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization.
Egypt is home to Africa's and the Middle East's first internal security service: TheState Security Investigations Service. Initially it was formed during the British occupation of Egypt as the Intelligence wing of theregular police. After the1952 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 theMinistry of Interior and separated from theregular police command. During the Nasser era, It was intensively trained by the SovietKGB 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 theWar 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 the2011 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 acommunistmilitary junta known as theDerg (in 1987 the country formally reformedinto a presidential republic, but the same people remained in poweruntil May 1991). The Derg built apolice state with a brutal military government. The brutality of its regime was particularly evident in the 1976-1978, during military campaign, calledRed 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 theCentral 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.[6]
InUganda, theState Research Bureau (SRB) was a secret police organisation forPresident Idi Amin. The Bureau tortured many Ugandans, operating on behalf of a regime responsible for more than five hundred thousand violent deaths.[7][8] The SRB attempted to infiltrate every area of Ugandan life.[9]
In Zimbabwe, theCentral Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was the secret police ofPresident Robert Mugabe who is responsible for detaining, torturing, mass beating, raping and starving thousands of civilians on the orders of Mugabe.
InEast Asia, theEmbroidered Uniform Guard (Chinese:錦衣衞;pinyin:Jǐnyīwèi) of theMing dynasty was founded in the 1360s by theHongwu Emperor and served as the dynasty's secret police until thecollapse 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 theEastern Depot (東廠;Dōng Chǎng), was formed to suppress suspected political opposition to the usurpation of the throne by theYongle Emperor. Combined, these two organizations made the Ming dynasty one of the world's firstpolice states.[10]
TheMinistry of State Security (国家安全部;Guójiā Ānquán Bù) in modern China controls a network of provincial and local State Security Bureaus, integrated with localPublic 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 theState Security Police, with officers which have the dual tasks of law enforcement and repressing political dissent.[11] State security bureaus and public security bureaus are functionally co-located within the same buildings as each other.[12] The MSS and theMinistry of Public Security control the overall national police network of China and the two agencies share resources and closely coordinate with each other.[13][better source needed]
InBritish Hong Kong, theSpecial Branch was established in 1934 originally as ananti-communist squad underMI5 with assistance fromMI6.[14] The branch later joined the Crime Department of theRoyal Hong Kong Police Force in 1946 and focused on preventingpro-KMT rightists andpro-CCP leftists from infiltrating the colony.[15]
TheNational Security Department in the currentHKSAR is a secret police agency created after the enactment of theHong Kong National Security Law.[16] The NSD has accused and arrested dissenting voices in Hong Kong for "endangering" the national security, includingpro-democracy politicians, protestors, and journalists.[17][18] Some websites were also reportedly banned by the department, includingHong Kong Watch.[19]
In theMiddle East, located in Baghdad.Shurta was one of the most both powerful intelligence and secret police organizations of theAbbasid era which was led by theAbbasids in the 8th and 9th centuries during theGolden Age of Islam.
In Japan, theKenpeitai existed from 1881 to 1945 and were described as secret police by theAustralian War Memorial.[20][21] It had an equivalent branch in theImperial Japanese Navy known as theTokkeitai. However, their civilian counterpart known as theTokkō was formed in 1911. Its task consisted of controlling political groups and ideologies inImperial Japan, resembling closer the other secret police agencies of the time period. For this it earned the nickname "the Thought Police".[22][23]
TheKorean 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 theassassination of Park Chung-hee, among other things.[24][25]
TheGeneral Intelligence Directorate or the GID was the secret police organization of theAssad regime which ruledSyria that suppressed the people until it disbanded in December 2024 during theSyrian Revolution with a popular uprising against the dictatorBashar al-Assad when he fled toRussia that night.
In Taiwan, theNational Security Bureau, established in 1954, is the regime's main intelligence agency. TheTaiwan 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.
Secret police organizations originated in 18th-century Europe after theFrench Revolution and theCongress 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."[26] TheGeheime Staatspolizei ofAustria and theGeheimpolizei ofPrussia were particularly notorious during this period.[27][26] After 1860, the use of secret police declined due to increasing liberalization, except in autocratic regimes such asTsarist Russia.[26]
InNazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, theGeheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police,Gestapo) andGeheime 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".[28] One method used to spy on citizens was to intercept letters or telephone calls. They encouraged ordinary Germans to inform on each other.[29] As part of theReich Security Main Office, it was also a key organizer ofthe 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".[30]
After the defeat of the Nazis inWorld War II, Germany was split into West andEast Germany. East Germany became asocialist state and ruled by theSocialist Unity Party of Germany. It was closely aligned withcommunist Russia and theSoviet Union. It had secret police, commonly referred to as theStasi, which made use of an extensive network of civilian informers.[31] From the 1970's, the main form of political, cultural and religious repression practiced by the Stasi, was a form of 'silent repression'[32] calledZersetzung ("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.[33]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.[34]
TheHouse of Terror museum inBudapest displays the headquarters for theArrow Cross Party, which killed hundreds of Jews in its basement, among other targets considered "enemies of the race-based state".[35] The same building was used by theState 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.[36]
In theFascist Italy (1922-1943) and theItalian Social Republic (RSI),OVRA were a fascist Italian secret police organization.
Ivan the Terrible implementedOprichnina in Russia between 1565 and 1572. In theRussian Empire, the secret police forces were theThird Section of the Imperial Chancery and then theOkhrana. Agents of the Okhrana were vital in identifying and suppressing opponents of the Tsar. The Okhrana engaged in torture and infiltration of opponents.[37] They infiltrated labor unions, political parties, and newspapers.[38] After theRussian Revolution, theSoviet Union established theCheka,OGPU,NKVD,NKGB, andMVD.[39] Cheka, as an authorized secret police force under the rule of the Bolsheviks,suppressed political opponents during theRed Terror. It also enacted counterintelligence operations such asOperation Trust, in which it set up a fake anti-Bolshevik organization to identify opponents. It was the temporary forerunner to theKGB, a later secret police agency used for similar purposes.[40] The NKVD participated in theGreat Purge under Stalin.[41]
In Cuba,President Fulgencio Batista's secret police, known as theBureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (or BRAC), suppressed political opponents such as the26th of July Movement through methods including violent interrogations.[42][43]
Under theCommunist Party of Cuba, theMinistry of the Interior has served a number of secret policing functions. As recently as 1999, theHuman Rights Watch reported that repression of dissidents was routine, albeit harsher after heightened periods of opposition activity.[44] TheBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under theUS State Department reported that Cuba's Ministry of the Interior utilizes a network of informants known as theCommittees for the Defense of the Revolution (or CDR) to monitor government opponents.[45] 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.[46]
During theTruman Doctrine, Mexican presidentMiguel Alemán Valdés createdDFS to combat communist opposition. The agency was later replaced byDISEN in 1985 after DFS agents were working for theGuadalajara Cartel. In 1989, it was replaced byCISEN.
InMississippi, theMississippi 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 upholdracial segregation. This authority was used to suppress and spy on the activities ofcivil rights workers, along with others suspected of sentiments contrary to white supremacy.[47] Agents from the Sov-Com wiretapped and bugged citizens of Mississippi, and historians identify the agency as a secret police force.[48][49][50] Among other things, the Sov-Com collaborated with theKu Klux Klan and engaged injury tampering to harass targets.[51][52] The agency ceased to function in 1973, but was not officially dissolved until 1977.[53][54] The Sov-Com served as a model for theLouisiana State Sovereignty Commission, theFlorida Legislative Investigation Committee, and theAlabama State Sovereignty Commission.
In private writings in 1945, PresidentHarry S. Truman wrote that theFederal Bureau of Investigation (underDirectorJ. 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.[55][56][57]
Yet in spite of these sentiments, Truman took no action to try to abolish the FBI, or even more modest reforms. Beginning a decade later in 1956, Hoover's FBI began theCOINTELPRO project, aimed at suppressing domestic political opponents.[58][59] Among other targets, this includedMartin Luther King Jr.[60]
During theGetúlio Vargas dictatorship, between 1930 and 1946, theDepartment of Political and Social Order (DOPS) was the government's secret police.[61]
During themilitary dictatorship in Brazil, DOPS was employed by the military regime along with theDepartment of Information Operations - Center for Internal Defense Operations (or DOI-CODI) and theNational Intelligence Service (or SNI), and engaged in kidnappings, torture, and attacks against theaters and bookstores.[62]
TheNational Intelligence Directorate, or DINA, was a powerful secret police agency under the rule ofAugusto Pinochet, which was charged with killings and torture related to repression of political opponents.[63] Chilean government investigations found that over 30,000 people were tortured by the agency.[64]
During the dictatorship ofMarcos Pérez Jiménez, theSeguridad Nacional secret police investigated, arrested,tortured, andassassinated political opponents to the Venezuelan government.[65][66] From 1951 until 1953, it operated a prison camp onGuasina Island [es], which was effectively aforced labour camp.[65] The Seguridad Nacional was abolished following theoverthrow of Pérez Jiménez on 23 January 1958.[65][67]
During thecrisis in Venezuela andVenezuelan protests,Vice PresidentsTareck El Aissami andDelcy Rodríguez have been accused of usingSEBIN to oppress political demonstrations. SEBIN director and generalManuel Cristopher Figuera reported that SEBIN would torture political demonstrators during interrogation sessions.[68]
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 asingle-party state".[3] 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.[3] Secret police forces sometimes endure even after the fall of a totalitarian regime.[3]
Arbitrary detention, abduction andforced disappearance,torture, andassassination are all tools wielded by secret police "to prevent, investigate, or punish (real or imagined) opposition."[69] 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 therule of law.[70]
People apprehended by the secret police are oftenarbitrarily arrested and detained without due process. While in detention, arrestees may be tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment. Suspects may not receive apublic trial, and instead may be convicted in akangaroo court-styleshow trial, or by a secret tribunal. Secret police known to have used these approaches in history included the secret police ofEast Germany (the Ministry for State Security orStasi) andPortuguesePIDE.[71]
A single secret service may pose a potential threat to the central political authority. Political scientistSheena 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.[72]
Authoritarian regimes therefore attempt to engage in "coup-proofing" (designing institutions to minimize risks of acoup). Two methods of doing so are:
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