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

See Examples For:

secret police

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

Rivas was the personal secretary for Chile's infamous secret police chief Manuel Contreras from 1973 to 1976.

From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026

Ali Khamenei was arrested repeatedly by the Shah’s secret police, and during one raid, Mojtaba watched him being beaten, according to the supreme leader’s website.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026

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

From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2025

I only remember where it said the people who had been working for Duvalier, the thieves and thugs and secret police, all those Macoutes, could not be in the government anymore.

From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple