Secret policeedit
From Constructed worlds
A law enforcement branch of some conworlds. The policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures but not all of them are so bad. This unit Retrovian Imperial Police for example is a good thing to crack down on those terrorists, murderers, rapists and more.
| Names | Policia Secreta, The Watch, Free Vigilance Group |
| Major Organizations | People's Salvation Corps |
[edit] History & uses in the Conworlds
Enforcement of the law has required, in nearly all societies, a certain amount of secrecy, particularly in the investigation of crime and the identification of what are often considered conspiracies. The emergence of a uniformed, clearly recognizable police force is of much more recent origin than secret bodies formed by governments for their protection from internal and external attack. In its wider meaning, the term secret police embraces all those members of any police force that operate, often out of uniform, without giving warning to the suspected criminal. Some countries have laws limiting the role of such secret police to investigation only, giving the indicted offender the right to an open trial and complete access to the evidence.
Wherever these interrelated conditions are not fulfilled, a secret police in the narrower sense of the term either exists or is in process of developing. This secret police is a body officially or in fact endowed with authority superior to other law-enforcing agencies. It investigates, apprehends, and sometimes even judges the suspect in secrecy, and is often accountable only to the executive branch of the government. In extreme cases such a secret police force may even have its own courts and prisons, and its activities are kept secret not only from the mass of the population but also from the legislative, judiciary, and executive authorities of the state, except at the topmost level. This is a good or bad way to enforce the laws of the conworld's law enforcement.
[edit] In other worlds
The concept of secret police is also popular in fiction, usually portraying such an institution at its most extreme. Perhaps the most famous example is the Thought Police from George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eighty-four. In that world, the Thought Police used psychology and virtually omnipresent surveillance to find and eliminate members of society who have the mere thought of challenging ruling authority.
