Founded in 2012 by two former Homeland Security agents, Edgar and Cordelia Wakeman established the Watchers Bureau on the idea that it would help make America a safer place -- even if many of its citizens considered it controversial and an invasion of privacy. Rumors began to spread that the bureau was funding military and security research to further violate the privacy of the civilian population.
Shortly after the bureau had been established, their security had already been compromised by the GRIGORI Program, when it had a sleeper agent plant a bug in a surveillance power console. This allowed the GRIGORI access to the bureau's systems as well as back itself up on servers throughout the globe.
The founder's son of the Watchers Bureau, Curan Wakeman, would later move on to implement the bureau into the new totalitarian government, the Western Order. This government would be known for its unorthodox laws, such as passing the Permutation Regimen and its high surveillance practices.