By “Police State” I mean a despotic sort of government in which the state is actively trying to spy on its citizens for political ends. Something like the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) or the People’s Republic of China.
By “Widespread and Reliable Communications Technology” I’m referring to everything from the Telegraph to radios to the internet.
For this world the printing press is what counts as information technology. The state in question is preindustrial but highly organized. It’s not like something you’d see in medieval Europe but more along the lines of an early modern state or Edo period Japan. The state in question is mostly concerned with using its police apparatus in its capital city, which has just over a million people.
The political ends of this police state are primarily to prevent rebellion, instill ideological conformity and prevent the emergence of organized labor