The OGPU was theoretically supposed to operate with more restraint than the original Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka. The OGPU's powers were greatly increased in 1926, when the Soviet criminal code was amended to include a section on "anti-state terrorism". The law were vaguely written and very broadly interpreted. Even before then, it set up tribunals to try the most exceptional cases of terrorism, usually without calling any witnesses. In time, the OGPU's powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.