Editing Special Branch (section)

==Australia==
Most state police forces and the federal police had a Special Branch. They were tasked mainly with monitoring the [[Communist Party of Australia]] and related political groups regarded as extremist or subversive.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} They also focused on German and Japanese activity during [[World War II]].
* The [[Commonwealth Police#Commonwealth Police Force|Commonwealth Police Force]] was formed in 1917 as "a form of federal special branch" under the ''[[War Precautions Act 1914]]''.<ref name="AFPHistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/162258/History_of_Australian_Federal_Police.pdf |title=A History of Australian Federal Police |publisher=Archives ACT |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510082821/http://www.archives.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/162258/History_of_Australian_Federal_Police.pdf |archive-date=10 May 2013 }}</ref> It was disbanded in 1919.
* The [[Commonwealth Police#Commonwealth Police (1960–1979)|Commonwealth Police]] Special Branch was established in 1957.<ref name="AFPHistory"/> It was absorbed into the [[Australian Federal Police]] in 1979.
* The [[Australian Federal Police]] Special Branch was renamed the Special Intelligence Branch in 1985 and merged into the Security Intelligence & Diplomatic Liaison Branch in 1995.<ref name="AFPHistory"/>
* The [[New South Wales Police Force]] Subversive Organisations Branch was formed in 1933.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1223|title=Police Subversive Organisations Branch|publisher=State Records|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405142321/http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1223|archive-date=5 April 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref> It was combined with the [[Commonwealth Police]], [[Royal Australian Navy]] Police and [[Australian Army]] Police at the outbreak of World War II to form the Military/Police Intelligence Branch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1222|title=Military/Police Intelligence Branch|publisher=State Records|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405080318/http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1222|archive-date=5 April 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The civilian component was formed back into the Police Subversive Organisations Branch in 1946, which was renamed Special Branch in 1948. The [[Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service]] found Special Branch was gathering information on people who posed no threat of politically motivated violence, and as a result it was disbanded in 1997.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1224|title=New South Wales Police Special Branch|publisher=State Records|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405083344/http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/agencies/1224|archive-date=5 April 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
* The [[Queensland Police Service|Queensland Police]] Special Bureau was formed on 30 July 1940 and renamed Special Branch on 7 April 1948. It has been criticised for being used for political purposes by the [[Joh Bjelke-Petersen|Bjelke-Petersen]] government in the 1970s and 1980s, such as enforcing laws against protests (sometimes outnumbering the protesters or using [[Agent provocateur|provocateurs]] to incite violence so the protesters could be arrested<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.couriermail.com/news/the-making-of-civil-liberties/story-e6freow6-1111114629112|title=The making of civil liberties|newspaper=Courier-Mail|date=13 October 2007}}</ref>) and investigating and harassing political opponents.<ref name="BT2010">{{cite news|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/inside-queenslands-spy-unit-20100406-rpbg.html|title=Inside Queensland's spy unit|newspaper=Brisbane Times|date=7 April 2010}}</ref> It was disbanded in 1989 following a recommendation by the [[Fitzgerald Inquiry]] into [[police corruption]].<ref name="BT2010"/> The Special Branch destroyed its records before Fitzgerald could [[subpoena]] them.<ref name="BT2010"/>
* [[South Australia Police]] formed an Intelligence Branch at the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939, which was disbanded in 1945. A Subversive Section was established in 1947 and renamed Special Branch in 1949. It amassed files on [[Australian Labor Party]] politicians, church leaders, trade unionists and so-called "pink files" on gay community activists at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.<ref name="SSO161105">{{cite news |last=Gould |first=Ian|title=A Feast of diversity|work=Sydney Star Observer|url=http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/australia-news/new-south-wales-news/2008/04/20/a-feast-of-diversity/10385|date=16 November 2005 |access-date=19 September 2009}}</ref> The South Australia Police was deliberately vague about the existence of Special Branch. In 1970, Commissioner Harold Salisbury told Premier [[Don Dunstan]] that Special Branch did not exist. A 1977 inquiry by Justice White of the [[Supreme Court of South Australia]] confirmed the existence and found the files were "scandalously inaccurate, irrelevant to security purposes and outrageously unfair to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of loyal and worthy citizens".<ref>{{cite book |author=Cunningham, Andrew |chapter=Industrial Relations |pages=163–178 |title=The Dunstan decade : social democracy at the state level |editor1=Parkin, Andrew |editor2=Patience, Allan |location=Melbourne |publisher=Longman Cheshire |year=1981|isbn=978-0-582-71466-3}}</ref> Dunstan sacked Salisbury for misleading Parliament about the existence of the "pink files".<ref name="Baird2001">{{cite journal | author = Baird, Barbara | title = The Death of a Great Australian | journal = Journal of Australian Studies | volume = 25 | issue = 71 | year = 2001 |pages=73–86 | doi = 10.1080/14443050109387722 | s2cid = 141435368 }}</ref> Special Branch was disbanded in 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aic.gov.au/en/publications/previous%20series/lcj/1-20/wayward/ch7t.aspx|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121127012858/http://www.aic.gov.au/en/publications/previous%20series/lcj/1-20/wayward/ch7t.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-11-27|title=Political surveillance and the South Australian Police|publisher=Australian Institute of Criminology}}</ref>
* The [[Victoria Police]] Special Branch was formed in 1931 and disbanded in 1983.<ref name="Age2008">{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/infiltrating-community-groups-has-a-long-history-20081015-51k2.html|title=Infiltrating community groups has a long history|newspaper=The Age|date=16 October 2008}}</ref> Similar work in monitoring terrorism is conducted by the Security Intelligence Group, established in 2000.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/changes-to-antiterror-squad-will-make-victorians-safer-20110519-1euud.html|title=Changes to anti-terror squad will make Victorians safer|newspaper=The Age|date=20 May 2011}}</ref>