This is a list of historical secret police organizations. In most cases they are no longer current because the regime that ran them was overthrown or changed, or they changed their names. Few still exist under the same name as legitimate police forces.
Initially formed to curb the insurgency and maintain law and order the force became involved in numerous charges of human rights abuse including political killings, shooting by death squads, and rape. It was seen as the armed wing of the ruling Awami League and it swore an oath of loyalty to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Force was disbanded and merged with the Bangladesh Army following the August 15th 1975 coup which dislodged Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from power.
Secret police are police, intelligence, or security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization.
The Civil Guard is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence. The role of the Ministry of Defence is limited except in times of war when the Ministry has exclusive authority. The corps is colloquially known as the benemérita. In annual surveys, it generally ranks as the national institution most valued by Spaniards, closely followed by other law enforcement agencies and the armed forces.
The National Intelligence Centre is the Spanish official intelligence agency, acting as both its foreign and domestic intelligence agency. Its headquarters are located next to the A-6 motorway near Madrid. The CNI is the successor of the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa, the Higher Centre for Defence Intelligence. Its main target areas are North Africa and South America and it operates in more than 80 countries. CNI's official budget for 2023 is approximately €337.1 million.
The International and State Defense Police was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigration control and internal and external state security. Over time, it came to be known for its secret police activities.
A security agency is a governmental organization that conducts intelligence activities for the internal security of a state. They are the domestic cousins of foreign intelligence agencies, and typically conduct counterintelligence to thwart other countries' foreign intelligence efforts.
The Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa is the coordinating structure of Portuguese intelligence.
Law enforcement in Bolivia is reliant on the 40,000-member Cuerpo de Policía Nacional responsible for internal security and maintaining law and order. Unlike many South American countries, the Bolivian police force always has been accountable to the national government rather than to state or local officials. The 1950 Organic Law of Police and Carabiniers officially separated the police from the military. Frequently, however, the national police call upon the military for assistance in quelling riots and civil protests.
The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of the Republic of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military Forces of Colombia, it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. The National Police is the only civilian police force in Colombia. The force's official functions are to protect the Colombian nation, enforce the law by constitutional mandate, maintain and guarantee the necessary conditions for public freedoms and rights and to ensure peaceful cohabitation among the population.
The Federal Police, formerly known as the Policía Federal Preventiva and sometimes referred to in the U.S. as "Federales", was a Mexican national police force formed in 1999. In 2019 it was incorporated into the National Guard and operated under the authority of the Department of Security and Civil Protection.
The Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR) is a government intelligence agency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The role of the agency is to ensure "internal security and external security" of the state. The agency was strongly criticized for the disrespect of human rights by several organisations. Inzun Kakiak has led the agency since 2019.
The Policía Nacional Bolivariana is Venezuela's national police force, created in 2009. Law enforcement in Venezuela has historically been highly fragmented, and the creation of a national police force was originally unpopular among the public and organizations. The creation of a National Police was one of the recommendations of a 2006 National Commission on Police Reform (CONAREPOL). At the time that the force was set up, the wage rate for officers in the new force was three times higher than that in existing forces.
The Policía Armada, conventional long names Cuerpo de Policía Armada y de Tráfico and Fuerzas de Policía Armada, —popularly known as los grises owing to the color of their uniforms— was an armed urban police force of Spain established by the Francoist regime in 1939 to enforce the repression of all opposition to the regime. Its mission was "total and permanent vigilance, as well as repression when deemed necessary."
The National Police of Honduras is the uniformed police force of the Republic of Honduras. The force is organised into regional headquarters, municipal headquarters, headquarters of fixed or mobile stations, and police posts. There are at least 360 police centres throughout Honduras. The National Police of Honduras has its headquarters in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. The National Police of Honduras is the fourth largest police body in Central America by number of employees. It is the sixth largest force in Central America by police officers per capita. The force's patroness is the Virgin of Carmen. On 16 July of each year the "National Police Patroness Day" is celebrated.
The GeneralDirectorate of Political and Social Investigations, was one of the two main domestic intelligence and security service of the United Mexican States. Created in 1918 as Sección Primera, under President Venustiano Carranza's administration, it reported directly to the office of the president. After the consolidation of the post-revolutionary Mexican political structure, and the rise of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, its jurisdiction changed to that of the Mexican Secretariat of the Interior. In 1985, following a political crisis involving the death DEA agent, the DGIPS was combined with its sister agency, the Federal Security Directorate, creating the Center for Research and National Security which is active to this day.
The General Directorate of Security was a Portuguese criminal police body active between 1969 and 1974, during the last years of the Estado Novo dictatorship.
The Directorate-General of the Police (DGP) is a component of the Spanish Department of the Interior responsible for exercising the direct command of the National Police Corps, the main civil law enforcement agency of Spain. The DGP, integrated in the Secretariat of State for Security, is in charge of organize, direct, coordinate and execute the missions entrusted to the National Police by the provisions in force, in accordance with the guidelines and orders issued by the Minister of the Interior.