The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another.
For instance, a country may establish a secret service which has some policing powers (such as surveillance) but not others.
The person may be said to operate openly at home and secretly abroad, or vice versa.
In modern times, the French police officer Joseph Fouché is sometimes regarded as a pioneer of secret intelligence; among other things, he is alleged to have prevented several murder attempts on Napoleon during his time as First Consul (1799–1804) through a large and tight net of various informants.
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