We report an electrical method for the detection of spin current and spin relaxation in nonmagnetic semiconductors. Optically polarized spins are dragged by an electric field in GaAs. We use the anomalous Hall effect for the detection of spin current and spin relaxation. It is found that the effect depends on the electric field and doping density as well as on temperature, but not on the excitation power. A calculation for the effect is performed using the measured spin polarization by a pump-probe experiment. The results are also discussed in comparison with a quantitative evaluation of the spin lifetimes of the photogenerated electrons under drift in GaAs. 頲008 IOP Publishing Ltd.