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At the time there were four separate forces:
- The "Palace Guard", who guarded the palace.
- The "Cable Street Particulars", a political police force concentrating on discovering "plots" against the current rulers of the city.
- The "Ward", who acted as gate-guards, thief-takers etc. during the day.
- The "Watch", who served the same purpose in the hours of darkness. The force comprised one commander, five captains, ten sergeants, forty corporals, lance-corporals, constables and lance-constables, and, in times of emergency, a "citizens militia" of varied size.
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Public opinion of the Watches (the Ward became known as the Day Watch) was never high, and reached an all time low when a Commander, who had told the public not to take the law into their own hands, was thrown onto the Ankh with a cry of "If it's not in our hands, whose hands is it in?" The Guilds were policing themselves by this point, so the Watch was becoming increasingly irrelevant.
The situation changed when Constable Carrot Ironfounderson joined, and the Night Watch saved the city from a dragon. Following the destruction of their Watch House, they moved to larger premises in Pseudopolis Yard (see GC4HV9J) and started recruiting more members, especially from ethnic minorities such as dwarfs, trolls and the undead. The Watch has even admitted a vampire. When they saved the Patrician's life Vetinari agreed to increase the force's stature, with new Section Houses being built around the city. The remains of the Day Watch were incorporated into a new City Watch, commanded by Sam Vimes.
Since then, the Watch has become a proper police force, dealing in crime prevention and investigation, rather than simple "thief-taking". They now have a forensics section, a Traffic Division and the long-gone Cable Street Particulars have been replaced by a plain-clothes division. A Watch Academy has been set up, although watchmen trained there often get "poached" by other Sto Plains city-states who have seen the advantages such a force has. Vimes tolerates this, because it is useful that coppers all over the plains have been trained to obey him.
The Watch's current motto is "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC", as inscribed on the old Treacle Mine Road Watch House; presumably the last part of the original "Fabricati Diem, Pvncti Agvnt Celeriter" had been lost. This is nonsense in Latin, and doesn't actually mean "Make my day, punk", although it looks as though it ought to; this is the nature of most "Latatian" in the books, and is not unusual. Fred Colon insists it means "To protect and serve". Interestingly, the motto of the Vimes family is "Protego et servio", or "I protect and serve".
More and more watchmen trained by the City Watch prefer to work in other cities abroad where they can earn good money thanks to their outstanding qualification and ethics. They are referred to as sammies and communicate with each other by telegraph ("clacks"), a reference to real-world Interpol (mentioned in The Night Watch).
The quiet suburb where this cache is located is also protected by a local "watch", who make use of modern technology to keep an eye on things. This technology includes video cameras such as those attached the pole close to where you will find yourself when searching for this cache. It is suggested that you approach from behind so that you don't spend too much time on camera.