Our sorcerer got some officers to confront the person who stole his identity and we turned the human trafficking ring over to the guard who pulled everyone out relatively safely.
But to even things out the sorcerer killed someone for his cloak and my rogue stole stuff from a person we later found out leaves the thieves' guild the next session. Karmic balance.
I mean maybe in real life. I had a game where one state was basically a commune. They had "guards" but they were volunteers from the community that were willing and able to do stuff like keep watch at night, make note of visitors, deescalate situations, and so on.
It worked well. The players helped stop counter revolutionaries from restoring the (now undead) despotic king to the throne.
Edit: there's power dynamics in any situation. This one didn't have authorities that were subjugating their people.
I really like this take. I wish more people would do that instead of just ignoring the elephant in the room.