secret police

American  

noun

1. a police force that functions as the enforcement arm of a government's political policies and whose activities, which often include surveillance, intimidation, and physical violence as a means of suppressing dissent, are usually concealed from the public.

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secret police British  

noun

1. a police force that operates relatively secretly to check subversion or political dissent

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Etymology

Origin of secret police

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

And critics claimed the company’s “Service Department,” designed to see that workers remained “sober and industrious,” was nothing more than a secret police force.

From Barron's • May 20, 2026

Shirin worries about a suspended prison sentence which the secret police could invoke at any time.

From BBC • May 10, 2026

It is completely understandable to raise concerns about a tattoo associated with the Nazi secret police; nobody should be regarded as a pedant for doing so.

From Slate • Apr. 13, 2026

But with an estimated 2,000 members from all branches of the armed forces as well as the national guard, the national police and the secret police, it’s as big as a brigade.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 17, 2026

And Werfel wondered whether this was a trick by the secret police.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin