In 1974, the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security been investigating the activities of State police special branches and five publicly acknowledged national intelligence agencies. The subsequent commission reports depicted the intelligence community as fragmented, poorly organized, inadequately staffed and equipped, and, in many cases, directed towards inappropriate goals. In the case of the South Australian Special Branch, the commission found a core of genuine security material, but far too much effort had been directed at the biased identification of imagined enemies and at maintaining files on an indiscriminate selection of persons. As a result of the report, the South Australian Commissioner of Police was dismissed, and the activities of the special branches were curtailed. Following publicity of these activities, a similar investigation was undertaken for the New South Wales Special Branch, and again it was found that the organization maintained files on vast numbers of people not connected to subversive activities. The article argues that the special branches in other Australian States probably participate in comparable activities, and that the agencies' duty of investigating subversive activities has become an arbitrary activity in the service of the agencies' own political interests and preferences. By denying the legitimacy of Government direction accountability and because of political ignorance, State police special branches have taken on a life of their own and have dissipated public funds in pursuing vague and speculative dangers while posing serious threats to citizens' rights to privacy. The article includes numerous bibliographical footnotes.