Suffolk Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing Suffolk in East Anglia, England. The force serves a population of 761,000 in a mostly rural area of 1,466 square miles (3,796 km2), including 49 miles of coastline and the Southern part of the Broads National Park. Headquartered in Martlesham, Suffolk is responsible for Ipswich, Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Felixstowe. As of March 2023, the force has a strength of approximately 1,399 police officers, 116 special constables, 917 police staff/designated officers, 33 PCSO's and 123 police support volunteers. The Chief Constable is currently Rachel Kearton, and the Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore (Conservative).
Organisation
Suffolk Constabulary is responsible for policing Suffolk's 4 major settlements, Ipswich, Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Felixstowe.
It is also responsible for Suffolk's 49 miles of coastline, along with many rivers, including the southern Broads National Park. It also has responsibility for the Port of Felixstowe, the largest shipping container port in Britain.
There are 1,106 police constables (PC's) in Suffolk (with the remainder being officers of the rank sergeant and above). This accounts for 145 police constables per 100,000 population. 302 officers are assigned to neighbourhood policing whilst 357 are assigned to incident/response management.
Sizewell Nuclear Power Stations
In conjunction with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, Suffolk is responsible for Sizewell A & B, on the East Suffolk coastline.
Military Bases
Suffolk is home to a number of major Army, RAF and USAF military bases, of which it works closely with. These include Wattisham Air Station, Mildenhall and Lakenheath. A man breached security during an incident in 2021 at Mildenhall, which Suffolk Police helped to quickly resolve.
Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) Created in 2010, ERSOU is funded by the seven police forces that make up the eastern region, with Bedfordshire Police being the lead force. It is primarily responsible for the combined Regional Organised Crime Unit and Counter Terrorism Policing.
Collaboration
Norfolk and Suffolk Collaboration
Norfolk Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary have collaborated numerous services together since 2010. An extensive programme of collaborative work has already delivered a number of joint units and departments in areas such as Major Investigations, Protective Services, Custody, Transport, HR, Finance and ICT. In 2020/21, £20 million was saved due to the collaboration for Suffolk.
7 Force / Eastern Region Collaboration
The 7 Force Collaboration Programme includes Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent police forces. This strategic collaboration programme was established in 2015 to develop and implement successful collaborative solutions to protect the frontline local delivery of policing. It collaborates on areas including Procurement, Training, Firearms, Driver Management, Digital Assets, Vetting and Forensics, along with ERSOU.
Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service
The police and Suffolk Fire & Rescue share a number of joint stations, allowing for closer collaboration between the services. A number of the joint stations are also host to the East of England Ambulance Service.
History
19th and 20th century
The force formed from the merger of West Suffolk Constabulary and East Suffolk Constabulary. Those forces had previously been merged in 1869 and then split again in 1899. The most recent merger took place in 1967, which also saw the Ipswich Borough Police merged.
21st century
In 2006, Suffolk Constabulary merged the role of traffic warden with that of PCSO.
Proposals announced by the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke in 2006 would have seen the force merge with neighbouring forces Norfolk Constabulary and Cambridgeshire Constabulary to form a strategic police force for East Anglia. However, the proposals were later abandoned.
In 2019, the UK Prime Minister announced that 20,000 new police officers would be recruited as part of a national uplift programme. Suffolk was allocated 179 of those new officers, which would bring the force strength up to more than 1,400 police officers by 2023.
In 2020, Suffolk recruited more female officers than male officers, being one of only eight forces in the UK to achieve this.
In 2022, Suffolk begun training recruits under the new Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), which sees a partnership of training with Anglia Ruskin University.