Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-4830106-20130810030606/@comment-24891101-20140523074418

Just from a realpolitik standpoint, I'd think there have to be militaries. However, I'd also venture that international relations are rather less fraught than they are here, at least among humans, and have probably been so historically. Since the Creatures of Grimm predate civilization, mankind has always had an other to define itself against, something which unites the humans. The advent of major armed conflict with the Faunus only increases this unity.

We also have the mention of the "incredible time of peace", which does suggest historical conflicts, probably against Faunus, and periodic large-scale Grimm culling near outlying settlements, like the various Australian efforts (See Emu War, but less silly, and more successful).

Hunters, Hunting, and the associated organizations are likely older than organized militaries, or at least their traditions, practices, and esprit de corps are. It may be that Hunters are a relatively recent innovation, unifying historical hunting of Grimm into a formal setting, after civilization got its feet under itself, and was no longer fighting an existential war.

In the modern setting, there is simply no way that Hunters do not have legal accountability. They must be licensed, and certified, probably qualified for certain tasks, and need to keep such current. Based on the historical tradition of prestige allotted to Hunters (before formalization), they likely enjoy some latitude. I've seen things about guilds and such, and they probably have their own hierarchy, customs, voluntary regulations and such, but they're ultimately likely answerable, at least notionally, to their nation's equivalent of FWS, which is probably a lot more interesting to work for on Remnant.

In terms of police powers and such, Hunters are probably consultants to police forces,  outside of the mandate of explicitly government-aligned Hunters, who have police power in their bailiwick. There is probably a fairly easy and routine way of deputizing Hunters for police forces. But their skills and training is not directed at police work, just as soldiers are not also police officers. However, since Hunters could theoretically be called on anywhere, and are not bound geographically in the same way soldiers are (soldiers have to be in a war zone; for Hunters, anywhere could theoretically become one), they have more latitude in that respect.

With regard to the military, keep in mind that for most of Remnant's history, the military and Hunters probably largely overlapped. Also Aura is a game changer: There is nothing special about hunters that prevents soldiers from being trained to similar degrees of skill. Their specializations are merely divergent.