The Vigil

The Vigil are the federal police force of The Pious Union of the Awakened. Part of the concessions member states make upon joining the The Union is that they give up all regular law enforcement to the Vigil, whose members are recruited from all of the constituent states. After training locally, members of the Vigil (known as Vigilants) are often rotated throughout The Union for several years before being returned to their home communities, the idea being to foster a sense of unity as well as an appreciate of the diversity of cultures within the borders of the country. The individual member states are allowed to enact their own local laws, so long as they do not interfere with those of the nation as a whole, and Vigilants are trained to enforce both local and national laws with equal care.   In actual practice, enforcement of laws depends on the laws being broken; local laws typically see Vigilants bring criminals to leaders or courts on a more local level for judgment, and administer punishments accordingly, while Union laws that are broken result in the offender being taken to a magistrate of the national court system.    The law enforcement powers of the Vigil being so broad are tolerated for two reasons. First, while a large and capable police force, well trained and well armed, Vigilants are not equipped for full blown warfare. Furthermore, member states and even their religious institutions may (and do) have their own militaries, which means that none of the member states feels particularly threatened by the presence of the Vigil within their borders. Secondly, the ubiquity of the Vigil along the roads of The Pious Union of the Awakened has largely resulted in safe travel and safe trading conditions almost everywhere within the borders of the confederation, mostly putting an end to the banditry that once existed along roads between settlements as regular patrols and Vigil Posts have stifled once rampant highway robbery.    However, the Vigil does not exist without controversy. There are many in The Union who believe the onus is on the federal government to provide military protection, especially as The Great War between The Verum Imperium and The Kingdom of Zelaya rages, threatening to spill over into Union lands. Many such critics suggest that the Vigil should be re-made into a military force that could be overseen by all of the member states, with policing duties reverted back to regional hands, in order to counter this dynamic threat.