secret police

noun
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.
Also called security police.


Origin:
1920–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To secret police
Collins
World English Dictionary
secret police
 
n
a police force that operates relatively secretly to check subversion or political dissent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Secret police is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
Example sentences
Both were run by quasi-dictators, complete with strict censorship and a
  pervasive secret police.
And they were more persistent than the secret police.
They called for an end to dictatorship, to censorship, and to the secret police.
But people can only get shot at by secret police so many times before they're
  likely to start shooting back.
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