The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word STASI
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
T
A
S
I
More clues leading to the result STASI
- Going in first, a significant force in East Germany
- Second volunteer army is raised for secret police
- Police station is turned over
- Secret police once cut period of inactivity
- Police arrest getting last character carted off
- Current tests pushed back repressive force
- Some wines, temperature as in southern Italy
- One taken by small revolutionary security force
- Mostly inactive state police
- Anastasia captured by secret police? On the contrary
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "repressive force" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case repressive force = stasi.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.