Spießruteträger

The Spießruteträger (bearers of a switch) are the peacekeepers and enforcers of their lord's will in the demesne of the emperor himself. This is a relatively new practice, with their duties previously being carried out partially by local directly unaffiliated guards, partially by specially dispatched officers of the Praesental army or the Household Guard, but it is already proving to be a useful method of upholding order and tax collection without relying on variably effective non-professionals or expanding the potentially dangerously powerful Feldjäger corps.   This organization was born in the imperial army as a method of upholding the discipline. Their very name, derived from a rod their carried and employed for delivering corporal punishment to those found in breach of army regulations, mainly regarding conduct in battle, upholding battle-readiness of one's equipment, and staunch obedience to officers. Initially they were not received well in this capacity, being especially despised by the troops, but while crack regiments of the Guard and the Praesental army, perhaps, did not benefit from presence of these servants of military jurisdiction, fresh recruits and lower-quality soldiers that either constituted auxiliary detachments from the emperor's demesne or were attached from armies of the imperial princes were quickly brought up to standards found at least fully acceptable by the imperial commanders, who, as the dominant concept of strategy that von Steinbrücken proposed in XII century demanded, needed first and foremost cohesive marching capabilities and apt memorization of the crucial musket reloading process in order to maintain the superiority in the rate of fire that the imperial armies boasted. Although emperor Willibald favoured cold steel, he nevertheless also approved of the Spießruteträger, finding the discipline they instilled even in lower-quality soldiers necessary for his manner of warfare. Thus the Spießruteträger became entrenched in the imperial army.
Their role in civilian peacekeeping became prominent later, only after emperor Willibald's death. Adolf-Gebhard von Waldheim, appointed the Count of the God-Saved Imperial Retinue by his father the emperor and tasked with saving the Thirteen Cities that constituted the imperial demesne's heartland, was besieged by a pretender force in the city of Eisenmarkt and found that he was not well able to keep the citizenry in line and prevent them sabotaging the defence in hopes of ending the deprivations they had to endure without diverting troops, which were outnumbered and often sorely needing rest, to various parts of the city. Using his position (for, as the Count of the Imperial Retinue, he was empowered to rule the Thirteen Cities in the emperor's absence, and his father was futher away in Neu-Egbertsburg), he extended the reach of his professional, reasonably paid and much more reliable military police to the civilian population as well, entrusting the Spießruteträger with enforcing his decrees. 
Although Adolf-Gebhard was later executed for fear of his success and aptitude, many of his changes, including the expansion of the Spießruteträger and extension of their reach, were retained. Counted as a part of the imperial militia and even a part of its armed branch, these full-time professional guards, routinely recruited from retired or wounded soldiers, were organized in quasi-military fomations and dispersed in the Thirteen Cities region, subordinate to the Count of the Imperial Retinue, the emperor himself, and the Master of Offices. To curb abuse of the populace, a Feldjäger is routinetly assigned to each major Spießruteträger force to act as an observer. The Spießruteträger squads of two to five soldiers carry out their duties in a portion of a city or countryside assigned to them and are empowered to commandeer civilian assistance when apprehending a criminal. Usually they become aware of a crime by either observing it during their patrol or being notified by a citizen. Being obliged to investigate all such reports and suspicious circumstances, they often use personally delivered notes or a system of whistles for communication, including requesting backup. In major cities, where the amount of Spießruteträger allows this, the squads are routinely shifted around to prevent them from close associationg with their district's unsavoury elements. 
They still carry the flexible wooden rod for delivering punitive beatings that got them their name, but are often also wielding firearms or short bladed weapons, which is necessary to combat criminals that can also be armed. Their instructions mandate that they do not kill a suspect unless he is in the process of committing a violent crime or menacing the safety of the Spießruteträger in question. Upon being apprehended, the suspect is delivered to the district officer - invariably a man of judicial skill - and his fate is resolved there.

Type

Government, Law Enforcement