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

The regime relied on strict media censorship and the Stasi, a large and feared secret police force to keep citizens in line.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

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

From 2014 to 2018, Mr. González López headed the secret police.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 17, 2026

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

From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2025

The secret police would report that he was not just a scholar of elf-goblin relations—he was a secret agent of the elves, a traitor against his own people.

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