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 the 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. Chief constables 19671968 : Sir Peter Jack Matthews (formerly chief constable of East Suffolk and afterwards chief constable of Surrey, 1968–72) 19701976 : Arthur Burns 19761983 : Stuart Leonard Whiteley 19891998 : Anthony Thomas Coe 19982002 : Sir Paul Joseph Scott-Lee (afterwards Chief Constable of the West Midlands, 2002) 20032007 : Alastair McWhirter 2007?? : Simon Ash 20132015 : Douglas Paxton 20162019 : Gareth Wilson 20192022 : Steve Jupp 2022present: Rachel Kearton Fast Justice (TV documentary series) In 2020, Suffolk's Sentinel Teams were at the focus of a 10 part television series which aired on Dave. The Sentinel teams use state of the art Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology which provides instant access to a network of cameras across the country, and they drive high performance, customised BMWs. The Sentinel teams provide enhanced coverage of Suffolk's road network to proactively disrupt serious and organised criminal activity as well as to increase police visibility. Sentinel officers also support the force's response