Kiszczak’s “Police within the Police”. On the Department for the Protection of Functionaries (1985–1990)The article is about the Department for the Protection of Functionaries (Zarząd Ochrony Funkcjonariuszy — ZOF), a heretofore insufficiently examined structure, which in 1985–1990 fulfilled the function of a ”police within the police” in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The author discussed the circumstances of the origin of ZOF, including changes inaugurated after the appearance at the Ministry of General Czesław Kiszczak (i.a. the Ministry’s militarisation), the arrest and trial of Captain Adam Hodysz, and the death of Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko. The text provides a synthesis of the functioning of ZOF within the context of its tasks, rights, structures, and staff, with the author describing typical and unusual cases of abuse discovered by ZOF, such as corruption in the passport department, the “treason” committed by the functionaries for the sake of the “political opponent”, and the on–the–spot or organised use made of Militia and Security Service structures and means for private purposes (including the activity of sui generis Militia gangs and symbiotic relations between the functionaries and the private sector). The article also takes into account the effectiveness of ZOF and ends by outlining new fields of research offering, i.a. sociological analyses of pathologies and social control mechanisms in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.