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.
Lean into it if you want. Have the PCs make friends with a guard NPC. Maybe do some quests for the guards. Then have the captain of the guards get killed (maybe while responding to a call from the NPCs) and then the NPC guard friend asks for the PCs help making sure that the next captain isn't the obviously corrupt asshole/failson nepobaby/stooge of the big bad.
Alternatively, the captain of the guards dies and the replacement is one of the above people and now the guards are suddenly much more hostile to the party, demanding bribes, refusing to act against nobles breaking the law, or trying to arrest the party to help the big bad's plans.