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

An agent for the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s secret police, arranged an introduction between Mercader and Sylvia Ageloff, a left-wing social worker from Brooklyn, N.Y., whose sister had once been Trotsky’s secretary.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, refuted descriptions of ICE as a secret police force.

From Salon • Oct. 24, 2025

That doesn’t cover everyone, but it’s a pretty broad blow to the secret police: It means uniformed, on-duty agents are legally obligated to have identification at all times.

From Slate • Oct. 10, 2025

“I’m Still Here” travels us to groovy 1970s Rio de Janeiro to befriend a wealthy, loving family who throw their mansion’s doors open for everyone, until the new regime’s secret police barge inside.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2025

“Magister Spurge, you remember my neighbor Druzmilla. Madam, the secret police have surrounded my house and wish to arrest us.”

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