History SecretPolice / RealLife

* In UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, the South African [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Bureau_of_State_Security Bureau for State Security]] [[note]]incorrectly given the abbreviation [[FunWithAcronyms B.O.S.S.]] by journalists; the official Afrikaans was ''die Buro vir Staatsveiligheid''[[/note]] fulfilled this function for the white government. BOSS was notorious for its general paranoia, for enthusiastically interrogating black suspects and facilitating their "suicides" from very high windows, and invented the euphemism "care package" for letter bombs -- on the grounds that receiving one of these ''really'' takes care of people. This was replaced in 1980 by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Service_%28South_Africa%29 National Intelligence Service (NIS)]], and following the end of apartheid, a revised and re-educated version persists as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Agency National Intelligence Agency (NIA)]].

* [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious Modern-day China]] has several secret police units, as one would expect from a country that has managed to keep over 1 billion people in line, even more than 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Most of them are organs within the dreaded Ministry of State Security (国家安全部) and the Chinese Communist Party, but the Ministry of Public Security (公安部), responsible for day-to-day law enforcement in China, also contains secret police units. These include the Enemy Investigations Bureau (敵偵局), and Office 610 (610弁公室). The latter is tasked with [[UnPerson disappearing Falun Gong activists]] (and, allegedly, [[OrganTheft harvesting their organs]]). The Ministry of Public Security also deploy their police officers overseas (known as Overseas 110 [海外110]), and erecting their own stations there (disguised as an office to help out Chinese immigrants), in order to keep track of dissidents living abroad and have them captured to be bought back to the mainland.

* Some scholars have suggested that the Spartan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypteia Crypteia]] played this role: they were ordered to spy on the helot (slave) population, and were given permission to kill anyone who were suspected of conspiring to overthrow the government.

* The East German ''Ministerium für Staatssicherheit'' (Ministry for State Security), known as ''UsefulNotes/TheStasi'', were far worse than the Gestapo. While they were privately mocked for their use of {{Incredibly Obvious Bug}}s, they were also feared for their ability to get people to rat out their friends and neighbors. Estimates of the prevalence of informers range from 1 in 50 to ''1 in 7'', essentially turning UsefulNotes/EastGermany into a PoliceState. The Stasi was also infamous for {{gaslighting}} political undesirables by messing up their private lives so they'll have a mental breakdown and have no stomach to challenge the government. The biggest advantage of ''Zersetzung'', as this tactic was called, was that its subtle nature enabled PlausibleDeniability.

* [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious Modern-day China]] has several secret police units, as one would expect from a country that has managed to keep over 1 billion people in line, even more than 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Most of them are organs within the dreaded Ministry of State Security (国家安全部) and the Chinese Communist Party, but the Ministry of Public Security (公安部), responsible for day-to-day law enforcement in China, also contains secret police units. These include the Enemy Investigations Bureau (敵偵局), and Office 610 (610弁公室). The latter is tasked with [[UnPerson disappearing Falun Gong activists]] (and, allegedly, [[OrganTheft harvesting their organs]]).

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], however with the Secret Service. They were originally formed to combat counterfeiting, and only investigate threats to the President's life by sheer dint of them having been the biggest Federal Government investigative body at the time the US Government finally decided they needed a dedicated outfit for Presidential protection[[note]]The FBI had not yet been formed at that time, the aftermath of William McKinley's assassination in 1901[[/note]].

* The Ming Dynasty's ''Jinyi Wei'' ("Brocade-Clad Guard") and the ''Dongchang'' ("The Eastern Commission of Investigations"). This is the first incarnation for the modern concept of "secret police". The Ming Dynasty Jinyi Wei originally begin as [[PraetorianGuard bodyguards to the emperor]], but later evolved to a full-blown intelligence agency. They blended into the public and were responsible for thought-policing, domestic-espionage, political assassination, and during times of war, acted as political commissars. The Jinyi Wei were often judge, jury and executioners without any concerns for due-process.

* Until it became defunct, UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition was basically this for the Spanish crown. Quite possibly the UrExample... Which explains why [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus no one expected it.]] Unlike the Inquisition in most other countries, the Spanish Inquisition was unique in that the Spanish crown had usurped the Church's authority in Spanish territory to collect tithes, appoint bishops, and prosecute Church-related crimes (at its height, the Spanish Empire was ''that'' powerful), largely as a legacy of [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista the Reconquista]](which the Church in Rome regarded as a [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusade]] and therefore to be aided in any way possible). The Inquisition in Spain became the political police as much as (if not more than) ecclesiastical police. By contrast, the Inquisition in most other Catholic countries was separate from (and usually more fair and consistent than) the secular legal authorities of the time.