In 2007 Fiona Pilkington drove to a Leicestershire lay-by with her severely handicapped daughter, set fire to the car and burned the two of them to death. She wanted to end years of abuse and intimidation by local youths. Her repeated calls to the police had not been treated seriously enough, an inquest found last year (another investigation, by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, is under way). It was an especially harrowing case-one that David Cameron, now the prime minister, says he found hard to read about. But stories of the police failing to pay real attention to supposedly "low-level" disorder are common. Denis O'Connor, the inspector of constabulary, highlighted the problem earlier this year.
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