The Policy Edge, October 2026
Police reform is often assessed through visible acts of compliance. Was a complaint registered? Was the prescribed procedure followed? These are necessary measures of institutional performance, but they reveal little about how an officer exercises judgement once a case is underway. The distinction is particularly important in gender-based violence (GBV), where officers exercise discretion over how a complaint is assessed and pursued. An officer may register a complaint and still give greater weight to the accused than the victim, treat competing accounts differently, or decide which aspects of a case warrant investigative attention. The formal rule may therefore be followed even as the quality of justice experienced by the complainant varies considerably.
