Senior management

Deputy Chief Constable Chris Balmer officially joined the force on Monday 8 December 2025. 

Chris began his career in Cambridgeshire in 2003 where he worked in various areas including public protection and the rural crime action team. 

Despite continuing to live in Cambridgeshire he then worked outside of the county between 2015 and 2025, initially on secondment to the Eastern Region Specialist Operations Unit (ERSOU) before transferring to Norfolk Constabulary on promotion to Detective Superintendent in 2016.

In Norfolk Chris worked first as the Authorising Officer for covert operations while representing the region on the National Source Working Group.  From there he moved to be Detective Chief Superintendent in the Safeguarding and Investigations command where he was responsible for improving the quality of investigations work throughout Norfolk including leading a project to build two state-of-the-art police stations to act as detective hubs, opening in 2020 and 2021.  He was appointed Temporary Assistant Chief Constable in 2024 following completion of the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Program.

Vaughan joined Cambridgeshire from Kent Police as an ACC in 2024 where he took on the role of ACC for Crime and Vulnerability in Cambridgeshire,  and later supported the force in the transition period between chief constables, taking on the role of temporary DCC.

He has now taken up the role of independent chair for misconduct hearings in a collaborated role, working across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire.

John joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary from the Metropolitan Police in 2020 becoming Head of our Protecting Vulnerable People Department.

In 2022 John was promoted to Head of Crime and Vulnerability and has strategic lead for the following areas:

• Protecting Vulnerable People
• Serious and Organised Crime
• Intelligence and Covert policing

John brings a breadth of investigative and leadership experience from Special Branch, Counter Terrorism and Specialist and Economic Crime. He has worked within numerous terrorism, espionage and corruption investigations in the UK and overseas including Afghanistan. He was also Deputy SIO within the phone hacking investigation (Operation Weeting) and led murder investigations in the Met’s Homicide Command for over 4 years.

Passionate about harnessing evidence-based research to deliver crime reduction and safeguarding initiatives in Cambs, John designed our VAWG strategy and established our Vulnerability Focus Desks and new Child Exploitation Hub. He is currently a PIP 3 Senior Investigator and Strategic Firearms Commander.

John holds Masters’ Degrees in History and Criminology from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and in 2019 published research on forecasting and preventing knife crime; this was presented at a Home Affairs Select Committee.

“It’s a privilege to be part of this leadership team and my aim is to continue to listen, learn and improve how we protect our community”

Jon is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant (CPFA) having qualified for full membership of the Chartered Institute of Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) in 2004.

He joined the Constabulary in December 2019 as Chief Finance Officer and Director of Resources.

His portfolio includes Finance, Estates, Payroll, Insurance, Uniform Stores, Fleet and Procurement.

As the CFO and S151 Officer Jon has a key role for the Constabulary in the financial governance of the tri-force collaboration between Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (BCH) and other areas of collaboration.

Jon brings 9 years of shared service experience to the Constabulary’s partnership arrangements.

Immediately prior to joining the Constabulary he had the role of Head of Integrated Finance Services leading a team of professional staff across multiple locations delivering finance services to a range of public sector bodies including County, Unitary and Districts Councils and a Fire Authority.

Jon joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 1999.

He worked in a number of Neighbourhood Policing and CID roles as a Constable and Sergeant. Upon his promotion to Detective Inspector he accredited as a PIP 3 Senior Investigating Officer (SIO). He was a Detective Chief Inspector for 6 years, where he performed the role of Head of CID at both Peterborough and Cambridge. He also spent time as Detective Chief Inspector in the Force’s Public Protection Department. He then spent 2 years as an SIO within the Major Crime Unit. 

On promotion to Superintendent in 2014 he was Head of Corporate Development before moving on to become Area Commander for the South of the County (a location with 550,000 residents covering nearly 1000 sq miles). He then took on the role of Head of Major Crime for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. 

Jon is an experienced Public Order/Public Safety Gold Commander, a Strategic Firearms Commander and PIP4 Strategic Investigator. Jon has a keen interest in Behavioural Science and has sat on the NPCC Behavioural Science Committee for a number of years.

Sarah has been head of corporate communications since July 2013, following two years as marketing manager for the Constabulary.

Sarah has worked for a number of public, private and third sector organisations during her career, although the majority of her time has been spent working in the police service - both locally and nationally.

Responsible for developing and delivering long term communication strategies for the force, in line with the organisation's aims and objectives, Sarah is the senior communications advisor to Chief Officers and the Force Executive Board. She is also responsible for ensuring the consistency in communications across a variety of channels to both internal and external audiences, through the communications team.

Sarah has a BA (Hons) in Journalism, is a qualified journalist, has a Chartered Institute of Public Relations diploma and a Chartered Management Institute diploma in management and leadership.

Sarah is a member of the Force Executive Board, is based at headquarters in Huntingdon and reports directly to Chief Constable Nick Dean.

Sarah said: 'The aim of the department is to effectively keep both internal colleagues and members of the public informed about the force.

'We seek to prevent crime and reassure the public through engaging with our communities and delivering regular awareness campaigns through the means of both traditional and social media.'

Rachel was appointed the Director of Human Resources (HR) for the collaborated Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire forces in April 2016. 

Previously, Rachel was the Director of HR for Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies between 2010 and 2016. During her time with Norfolk and Suffolk, Rachel led the collaboration of the two HR departments as well as leading on harmonisation for pay and conditions whilst successfully completing the Strategic Command Course.

She was appointed Director of HR for Suffolk in March 2010 but took up the newly created joint role for the two forces in January 2011.

Her career in HR started in the Health Service, before spending 13 years at Nottingham City Council, working her way up through various HR management positions across a number of departments, including Social Services, Leisure and Community Services, City Treasurer’s Department and Corporate HR.

In 2006, Rachel joined Kettering Borough Council as their Head of HR, before relocating to Suffolk in 2010 to take up the role of Director of HR with the County’s Police Force.

Chief Superintendent Rebecca Tipping joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 1991. She is currently head of the force ‘People and Professionalism’ Department focused on the organisational priority of ‘People’ which includes strategic responsibility for Ethics, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and Continuous Professional Development of all staff.

Becky has over 30 years policing experience predominantly as a detective. She has spent time in every rank and has a depth and breadth of experience in a number of business areas: volume and serious crime, professional standards, anti-corruption investigations, serious organised crime, intelligence, crime business, creation and implementation of business change programmes and international workings.

Becky is an accredited PIP 3 Serious Organised Crime SIO and has led several high-profile complex and serious organised crime operations.

Ian has served with Cambridgeshire Constabulary and the wider tri-force collaboration across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire for over 30 years. He is the Detective Chief Superintendent -  Head of Crime for Joint Protective Services across Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies with oversight of all homicide, crime in action and other high risk major crime investigations.

Accrediting as a PIP3 Senior Investigating Officer in 2007 and more recently as a PIP4 in 2021, Ian has undertaken a wide variety of investigative roles across covert, intelligence, crime management and serious/major crime policing throughout his career. Ian is operationally accredited and regularly deployed as a Strategic Investigator, Strategic Firearms Commander and Senior Identification Manager for Disaster Victim Identification incidents.

Ian has a Master’s degree in Crime Science from University College London.

Alex has been a Special since 2001 and orchestra manager at the BBC since 2008.

He was appointed as superintendent in the restructured Special Constabulary and officially took over as its head in June, 2025.

Father-of-three Alex was always interested in policing and, had his career in broadcasting not worked out, it would have been the obvious alternative.

He was based first at St Neots, where he lives, and after a couple of years began moving through the ranks, as a Special inspector in Fenland and then superintendent.

More recently he has supported the Operational Learning side of the Specials and liaised with PSD on disciplinary cases involving Specials.

His proudest moments include devising a successful action plan and op order for dealing with anti-social behaviour in Gaminglay and setting up a unit that operated across the force’s old central division on the last Friday of each month.

This unit ran high-visibility patrols in the night-time economy and won him a commendation and a thank you letter from the Minister for Policing.

His regular career began in campus radio at university before getting involved in a weekend programme on the local BBC radio station.

From there he moved into music production – at first radio jingles and then television and commercials.

He worked a lot with orchestras and took the opportunity to become manager of the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2008.

The orchestra’s music is heard right across the BBC network, from concerts like the Northern Soul Prom on BBC Two, to Piano Room on Radio 2, Friday Night is Music Night on Radio 3 and Call the Midwife on BBC One.

Alex said: “I see my role is to continue celebrating the amazing work that already happens, day in, day out, from my fellow volunteer officers and make sure every Special knows how valued they are.

“Then I hope we can further grow the support we give to our regular colleagues, helping in that mission of creating a safer Cambridgeshire.”

Sherrie joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 2001 and has spent the majority of her career as a detective, specialising in safeguarding. She has held a number of roles across the Protecting Vulnerable People Department, including Detective Superintendent and Head of Department.

She has led complex investigations and secured convictions in serious safeguarding cases, working closely with multi-agency partners to protect and support vulnerable people across Cambridgeshire.

In February 2025, Sherrie was appointed Temporary Detective Chief Superintendent for Crime and Vulnerability.

She is responsible for Partnerships and Prevention, ISCD, Covert Authorities and Standards, and the Protecting Vulnerable People Department. She also holds strategic oversight for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Sherrie is also an accredited Strategic Firearms Commander.