Editing Secret police (section)

==Functions and methods==
[[Ilan Berman]] and J. Michael Waller describe the secret police as central to totalitarian regimes and "an indispensable device for the consolidation of power, neutralization of the opposition, and construction of a [[single-party state]]".<ref name=":0" /> In addition to these activities, secret police may also be responsible for tasks not related to suppressing internal dissent, such as gathering foreign intelligence, engaging in counterintelligence, organizing border security, and guarding government buildings and officials.<ref name=":0" /> Secret police forces sometimes endure even after the fall of a totalitarian regime.<ref name=":0" />

[[Arbitrary detention]], abduction and [[forced disappearance]], [[torture]], and [[assassination]] are all tools wielded by secret police "to prevent, investigate, or punish (real or imagined) opposition."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dragomir|first=Elna|title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Surveillance, Security, and Privacy|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|year=2018|editor-last=Arrigo|editor-first=Bruce A.|pages=753–56|chapter=Police State}}</ref> Because secret police typically act with great discretionary powers "to decide what is a crime" and are a tool used to target political opponents, they operate outside the [[rule of law]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gaus|first=Gerald F.|title=Justificatory Liberalism: An Essay on Epistemology and Political Theory|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|pages=196}}</ref>

People apprehended by the secret police are often [[arbitrary arrest and detention|arbitrarily arrested and detained]] without due process. While in detention, arrestees may be tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment. Suspects may not receive a [[public trial]], and instead may be convicted in a [[kangaroo court]]-style [[show trial]], or by a secret tribunal. Secret police known to have used these approaches in history included the secret police of [[East Germany]] (the Ministry for State Security or [[Stasi]]) and [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portuguese]] [[PIDE]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stove|first=R. J.|title=The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims. Encounter Books|year=2003|isbn=1-893554-66-X|location=San Francisco}}</ref>