Harmonium and the looting of arrestees

The key here is 'on duty' I think. If the players are talking about doing things strictly by the book (which it sounds like they are), then criminals should be treated with the Hamonium's scrupulous (in theory) attention to Lawful (with Good tendencies) ethos. That means no looting! Quite apart from encouraging theft and corruption its a Public Relations nightmare, for the reason Azure talks about above.

So in theory you're NPCs would get all their possessions back in the morning. After all, if the PCs got pinched by a patrol for a minor offense (say, a barroom brawl), they wouldn't like to be turfed out in the morning without their stuff, now would they?

That's "in theory" however. There are several other potential options:

Firstly, one or more items could be illegal under Sigil Law. They naturally wouldn't be given back, but they probably wouldn't be allowed in the PCs' hands either for the same reason.

Quite frankly, we all know that some Hardheads sign up just to push people around, and embezzling a little from (especially obviously scum) prisoners probably does go on, but probably only to a few coins from a pouch (especially when it was drunk and disprderly) or the odd item "lost in transit" - you're PCs might well be of higher moral calliber, however.

Now there is a concept called prize money, which is usually associated with the navy. Something similar might apply, especially if its technically an incentive to catch proven dangerous criminals. Over in the

Ortho Project (which has buckets full of optional Harmonium information, by the way), we've basically decided that Prize Money isn't something the Harmonium does (you may do things differently), but there are incentives to bring in dangerous criminals which might well include bounties roughly equivalent (thanks to the magic of DMing...) to the loot that they'd have earned by just robbing them.

There's also the fact that the prisoners' items (especially their weapons) have probably just become evidence, and may be retained for that reason. If the NPCs 'go down for a stretch' as opposed to a few nights in the cells, then its not uncommon for the powers that be to sell off their items to help defer the cost - it seems reasonable to assume that the PCs could buy these items at a "police auction" for cut down prices.

"A Prince, as I have said before, sooner becomes hated by being rapacious and by interfering with the property and the women of his subjects, than in any other way. From these, therefore, he should abstain. For so long as neither their property nor their honor is touched, the mass of mankind live contentedly..."
--Machiavelli, The Prince

[emphases mine, of course]

I have to vote "nay" on this one. While Harmonium PCs themselves may be a good-natured lot, if confiscation of personal stuff were an ordinary feature of the local civil code, I would expect large-scale looting of the citizenry to follow. Even if only by less good-natured NPCs.

I pretty much agree with your analysis.

In our world, offering cash prizes for the highest number of arrests in a month is technicly illegal, but precincts have been caught giving away t-shirts, guns, sports tickets, pick of cruiser, etc. Problem is, deciding giving "ball buster of the month" the nice parking space is OK but a brand new 12-guage is not. How about a new mag-light, is that OK? "No" say police oversight councils, "Aw, c'mon" say conservatives.

In the Sigilan setting, I would think cash incentives would be no-go. 'Assigning' equipment in recognition for service wouldn't be looked twice at, though. The kind of unofficial incentives that a precinct full of like-minded individuals have on the side are also not a big deal, so a betting pool (would Harmonium do this?) that payed off on the result of a trial, or went to the squad with the most arrests, would not be looked into so long as it didn't get totally out of control.

It seems to me that the hardheads would auction off any seized goods of criminals that were y'know in for the long haul.

They don't always go through the trouble of arresting. Evil Hardheads have been known to hunt down and murder Indeps.

Personally, I think the Harmonium are way more interesting (and scary) if they're only subtly oppressive. They work better as well-intentioned extremists than straight villains. They're all about using extremely questionable methods to achieve noble ends, but there's really no noble justification you can have for taking from those you've arrested (especially if they haven't been convicted). I'm sure it happens all the time (the Harmonium can be pretty corrupt at times), but I really can't see it as approved behavior.

Personally, I'd resolve the issue of rewarding the PCs by giving the Harmonium officer in the group a bonus or perhaps even a promotion. This is, of course, perfectly legitimate as it is a Harmonium officer's duty to enforce the law and by arresting a group of dangerous lawbreakers (while off-duty, no less), she performed her duty to a laudable degree and has earned a reward. The other PCs can be paid for "aiding a Harmonium officer in upholding the law." Not a lot of of people in Sigil stick their neck out to help the Harmonium, so the Harmonium tries to reward those who do.