Editing Secret police (section)

==== United States ====
[[File:Rudolf Abel Verhaftung.png|thumb|Arrest of [[Rudolf Abel]] by the FBI]]
In [[Mississippi]], the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] (or "Sov-Com") was a state agency given unusual authority by the governor of Mississippi from 1956 to 1977, to investigate and police private citizens in order to uphold [[racial segregation]]. This authority was used to suppress and spy on the activities of [[African-American civil rights movement|civil rights workers]], along with others suspected of sentiments contrary to white supremacy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cook|first=Karen|date=2013|title=Struggles Within: Lura G. Currier, the Mississippi Library Commission, and Library Services to African Americans|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43737455|journal=Information & Culture|volume=48|issue=1|pages=142|doi=10.7560/IC48108|jstor=43737455|s2cid=144408708 |issn=2164-8034}}</ref> Agents from the Sov-Com wiretapped and bugged citizens of Mississippi, and historians identify the agency as a secret police force.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dittmer|first=John|title=Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-252-06507-1|location=Urbana and Chicago|pages=60}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowers|first=Rick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p-UTHPSXBZoC&pg=PA38|title=Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement|date=2010|publisher=National Geographic Books|isbn=978-1-4263-0596-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Hertzberg|first=Hendrik|title="Breach of Peace"|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/hendrik-hertzberg/breach-of-peace|access-date=2021-02-09|magazine=The New Yorker|date=24 February 2009|language=en-us}}</ref> Among other things, the Sov-Com collaborated with the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and engaged in [[jury tampering]] to harass targets.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Teepen|first=Tom|date=1998-03-29|title=Mississippi panel terrorized blacks|url=https://www.deseret.com/1998/3/29/19371486/mississippi-panel-terrorized-blacks|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Deseret News|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sack|first=Kevin|date=1998-03-18|title=Mississippi Reveals Dark Secrets of a Racist Time (Published 1998)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/18/us/mississippi-reveals-dark-secrets-of-a-racist-time.html|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The agency ceased to function in 1973, but was not officially dissolved until 1977.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: An Agency History|url=http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?id=243|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205182453/http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?id=243|archive-date=2019-12-05|access-date=2021-02-09|website=mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=MS Digital Archives|url=https://da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/scagencycasehistory.php|access-date=2021-02-09|website=MS Digital Archives|language=en}}</ref> The Sov-Com served as a model for the [[Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission]], the [[Florida Legislative Investigation Committee]], and the [[Alabama State Sovereignty Commission]].

In private writings in 1945, President [[Harry S. Truman]] wrote that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (under [[Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation|Director]] [[J. Edgar Hoover]]) was tending towards becoming a secret police force:<blockquote>We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F.B.I. is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandles [sic] and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals. They also have a habit of sneering at local law enforcement officers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=May 12, 1945 {{!}} Harry S. Truman|url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/longhand-notes-presidential-file-1944-1953/may-12-1945|access-date=2021-02-09|website=www.trumanlibrary.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVVffTwVVy4C&pg=PA22|title=Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman|date=1997|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1119-4|location=|pages=22|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sherrill|first=Robert|date=1980-11-02|title=Harry S. Truman: A President in Private|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1980/11/02/harry-s-truman-a-president-in-private/a6cc8603-b0ae-4dff-b5f0-10dfa63499dc/|access-date=2021-02-09|issn=0190-8286}}</ref></blockquote>Yet in spite of these sentiments, Truman took no action to try to abolish the FBI, or even more modest reforms. Beginning a decade later in 1956, Hoover's FBI began the [[COINTELPRO]] project, aimed at suppressing domestic political opponents.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Huey P. Newton Story - Actions - COINTELPRO|url=https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_cointelpro.html|access-date=2021-02-09|publisher=PBS}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Ogbar|first=Jeffrey O.G.|date=2017-01-16|title=The FBI's War on Civil Rights Leaders|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/16/the-fbi-s-war-on-civil-rights-leaders|access-date=2021-02-09}}</ref> Among other targets, this included [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2017-05-02|title=Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709005458/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi|archive-date=Jul 9, 2021|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Stanford University - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|language=en}}</ref>

In 2025, [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement|U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)]] agents have [[Activist deportations in the second Trump presidency|targeted and abducted students who have expressed solidarity with Palestine]] in plain clothes and face masks.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morgenbesser |first=Lee |date=2025-04-28 |title=How ICE is becoming a secret police force under the Trump administration |url=https://theconversation.com/how-ice-is-becoming-a-secret-police-force-under-the-trump-administration-255019#:~:text=Opaque%20operations,two%20women%20would%20be%20prosecuted. |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>