Following the inquest into the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca Hardwick in 2007, Julie Spence, the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, who heads the ACPO business area on citizen focus said: “The deaths were tragedies. Leicestershire Police has apologised unreservedly for mistakes which were made. Let there be no doubt that tackling anti-social behaviour is a key responsibility of the police. Of the 3,600 neighbourhood policing teams across the country, most if not all of them, will have anti-social behaviour as a top or high priority. We acknowledge that in many cases the police are the only 24-hour 365 days per year resource that the public can turn to. “But police can’t do it alone. Local councils, partners and communities themselves need to support victims by working closely together to tackle anti-social behaviour. Effective data sharing arrangements are vital so that cases of significant vulnerability are identified within large volumes of confidential data across agencies. In every situation they encounter, police officers make decisions based on threat, risk and harm and on what keeps people safe. The scale of that challenge is enormous – including nationally 80 million calls that were not life threatening or serious crimes in progress last year. Failure can be for many reasons and when we get it wrong, as a police service we should recognise the facts quickly and respond in a way that ensures we do better. “The events leading to this tragedy will be reviewed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and we are keen to learn and implement the lessons.”