Eleasis 7, 151 Lieutenant Jastran Moonfall; Temporary Acting Head of the Watch Council c/o Herald; Spellguard Agency c/o Officer Barkley Watch Post Box; Herald's Office; Spellguard Tower Regard Reforming Watch

Program for Reorganization of the Watch by Barrister Fawkes

Abstract: The Watch should:

1 Create new uniforms; sans helmets and sans deadly weapons while on patrol and adopt even a new name with a public statement of purpose. To demonstrate that this is a "new" restructured organiztion that serves the people rather than a haphazardly constructed growth from the first vigils by the Founders. 2 The Watch should have a mandatory loyalty oath to Sanctuary and its Council. To reassure people about what the Watch stands for. 3 Codification of fines and punishments are necessary to guide future fines and punishments. To ensure punishment is fair and just. 4 All fines and punishments deserve a right to appeal. Should punishments not demonstrate fairness or justice. 5 Trials must be conducted publically. To give society the right to watch its own justice be enacted.

Explanations:

Complaints against the Watch are not new, people chafe under authority. Many groundless complaints that culminate in calls to restructure the Watch are based under this disdain for authority and the punishment often deserved by the guilty. Yet the Watch has failed to evolve from a small force dedicated to watching over the sleeping fugitives of Traensyr 151 years ago into a powerful force capable of defending over 1000 members of a growing community. This program seeks to resolve complaints from both avenues.

Complaints that the Watch is corrupt, oppressive, and violent are generally unsophisticated and shallow; lacking clear evidence or examples to prove the point—they indicate a meager fear of authority. Yet these complaints do undermine the Watch and measures can be adopted to mitigate concerns with cosmetic changes to the Watch’s operations.

Solutions:

First: In light of the Sheriff Walter scandal, and other worse situations in the past the Watch must break cleanly with its past and demonstrate a new commitment to our new reality and this can be accomplished through renaming the Watch, supplying them with new more visible uniforms, demanding an oath of loyalty to Sanctuary from all Watch members.

The original population of Sanctuary was less than fifty men, all members of the Watch were well known, friends and family of all other citizens. The same is not true today; to re-instill a sense of community between the Watch and the people which will be accomplished by removing helms from the Watch uniform unless the Watch is on high alert and Watchmen will be prohibited from carrying drawn steel on patrol. There is no reason the protector’s of the people should hide their faces from the people, nor in their roll as protectors of people should they have swords and axes at the ready for use against their wards. The Watch instead will carry blunt weapons, non-lethal tools for subduing criminals and only resort to sharp edged weapons of war when their lives or the lives of others are clearly at risk.

The laws of any land must be just, but there is no guide to what just punishment is in Sanctuary. A youth of 16 years can join the Watch with no direction into the just punishment for law breaking. All fines and punishments should be codified into a common law drawn on past transgressions. If historically the Watch assigns an average fine of 500 gold coins for theft, then that will constitute the normative fine in such situations for the future.

If punishments are outlandish, heavy handed, then the guilty deserves a right to appeal. Punishments doled by a private are appealed to a sergeant; lieutenant, or the Sheriff, of a sergeant by lieutenant or Sheriff, lieutenant only by the Sheriff, and the Sheriff is the last route of appeal.

These are a number of general reforms that are required to make the Watch more responsive to the people it serves, and improve its performance and image.

The next Sheriff should have the power to greatly adapt the Watch to its new realities, and these are just a number of changes I believe will be necessary when the next Sheriff takes office.

The letter is opened, along with anything addressed to ranking officers by Sally. She spends a while musing through the small pile of mail that arrives on a daily basis, before swinging her feet off the Sheriff's desk and sitting foward to pen a short letter back

Dear Mister Fawkes.

I am delighted to see you have taken such an interest in the future of the Watch in this poor town. I don't know if you have sent any more, it may have got lost under the pile of papers we get. I feel it would be nice if you could come and speak with us in person reguarding some of your ideas since these are better discussed by mouth than quill.

Sergeant Marshall

Eleasis 11, 151 Council Members, Sheriff Graiden Townhall Regard Reforming Watch

I spoke at length with Sergeant Marshall of the Watch. She gave me her opinions of these suggestions.

1 Create new uniforms; sans helmets and sans deadly weapons while on patrol and adopt even a new name with a public statement of purpose. To demonstrate that this is a "new" restructured organiztion that serves the people rather than a haphazardly constructed growth from the first vigils by the Founders.

She believes this is a waste of money. However, that applies only to new uniforms. I think she missed that the crux of the argument is that the Watch should not hide their faces from citizens, nor should they wield deadly weapons as they walk amongst the populace in times of safety. This will still go a long way to making the Watch more approachable and trusted by the people.

2 The Watch should have a mandatory loyalty oath to Sanctuary and its Council. To reassure people about what the Watch stands for.

Apparently such an Oath exists, but Sergeant Marshall could not recall what she swore. If you have an archivist who can find it perhaps, or one can be created anew. The Sergeant suggested it to be a good idea.

3 Codification of fines and punishments are necessary to guide future fines and punishments. To ensure punishment is fair and just.

To my extreme disappointment, Sergeant Marshall implied this is "too much work" for the Watch. Further, following such procedures is "too much work" as well.

I am willing to codify such a system if I can gain access to the Watch's files, and I assure you that giving the Watch a guideline in which fines should be levied justly will not only make their jobs easier, but also make it clearer they enforce just rules and not arbitrary and personal decrees.

4 All fines and punishments deserve a right to appeal. Should punishments not demonstrate fairness or justice.

Sergeant Marshall did not give comment on this.

5 Trials must be conducted publically. To give society the right to watch its own justice be enacted.

Sergeant Marshall sadly believes that since "occasionally" matters of internal security are discussed in a trial that they should "never" be open to the public. The logic is fuzzy at best, and I maintain the people have the right to witness justice enacted on their behalf, to ensure it maintains their standards.

On the rare occasions where security of the city might be undermined by a trial, any Judge should have the authority to close the room during that testimony.

In all, I found most of the Sergeant's objections rooted in the unfortunate love of a status-quo which is failing in the city. The fear of "more work" for "over worked" Watchmen is unfortunate. The Watch serves the people, and more over a great, I'd say collosal effort is necessary to regain the trust of Sanctuary after the Walter's scandal. There is no avoiding this grand endeavor to save the Watch from its past errors, but the Watch as an institution is worth saving and is noble. It deserves people with a commitment to more than an easy job with regular pay.

Respectfully,

Barrister Fawkes