The days of the town crier and the night watchman have long gone, except in the sense of today's ceremonial purposes, but back in their day, they were important functions of behalf of the state. For instance, the town crier would first ring his bell, so as to get the full attention of the townspeople and from there, would announce news of importance to them, before posting such on the door post of a designated inn, so that literate townspeople would be able to read the announcements thereof at their convenience. The night watchman's main tasks involved trying to keep order in the darkness of the night, by patrolling the streets and accosting any suspicious characters, in addition to providing a visible and moving presence that was meant to serve as a constant deterrent to miscreants. In addition, the night watchman kept a careful eye out for fires, and was responsible for giving the time of night, along with proclaiming any pertinent information in regards to the weather.
All of the above, was indicative that without the modern conveniences of weather reports, clocks, an abundance of outside lighting, and the internet so as to report news in real time, that communities depended upon their town crier as well as their night watchman so as to be kept fully informed of important news as well as to be protected from those that were up to no good, and thereby using the cover of night to perform their misdeeds.
While it is true that there isn't a present need for a town crier or a night watchman, anymore, and even if there was, that because communities are so spread out that it wouldn’t be effective; the reality of it is, that the structure of communities have taken these jobs as originally conceived, and subsequently formalized them into our weathermen, police forces, firemen, emergency alerts, and media outlets of all types. Still, there is something to be said about living in a day and age, in which a community, by definition, was far more engaged one to another, simply because one's very livelihood and safety depended upon being informed of seminal events, occurring on and around a given community.
What we have lost in today's world, is often that sense of close connectivity that existed in bygone eras, and replaced such with a much higher degree of anonymity as well as of apparent individual self-sufficiency that sees many neighborhoods exist in which those that make up that neighborhood, really don't know one another, and further often don't have the desire to do so. The problem with that sort of non-involvement one with another, is that when a given society feels no sense of urgency to watch out for their neighbor, then that community places itself in the unenviable position of being exploited by those that have bad intentions, of which those bad actors have the knowledge that without a designated town crier or a night watchman, that any and everything is pretty much available to them, because nobody is really minding the store and apparently nobody actually cares to.