The JPS covers all the specialist teams provided to the three forces under the collaboration arrangements: Armed Policing Unit, Civil Contingencies Unit, Dog Unit, Operational Support Unit, Major Crime Unit, Roads Policing Unit, Scientific Services Unit, Counter Terrorism Unit.

ACC Sebire said: “These are very expensive units and that’s why the collaboration works so successfully because actually if you had each unit individually they wouldn't be able to operate.

"If you think of all the training the kits and how you would deal with all the backroom functions and imagine doing it three different times in three different ways. When you're only doing it once and you're able to flex and move your resources around the three counties, depending on where the demand is."

Retiring from the role is ACC Paul Fullwood.

He said: “Tomorrow is my last day as ACC for JPS, I am proud to have led the JPS teams for the last three years and to have worked within the command since 2012.

“JPS is one of the most successful collaborations of specialist policing in the UK for which I remain immensely proud to have work with so many professional officers and staff from across Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies.”

ACC Sebire will have around 600 to 700 officers and staff under her command, and she commended the "level of talent and skill" that existed in the collaboration.

ACC Sebire joined Bedfordshire Police in February 2016 as a detective superintendent. Prior to this she was a homicide and serious crime detective in the Metropolitan Police.

She was appointed as Bedfordshire ACC in April 2018 and is described as “instrumental” in the creation of Emerald team, dedicated to domestic abuse and sexual offences.

ACC Sebire also has a PhD in Forensic Psychology and is a visiting scholar at Cambridge University.

Bedfordshire Police is the lead for the tri-force collaboration and ACC Sebire will therefore remain as a Bedfordshire officer.

ACC Sebire said the role would have higher scrutiny now as she will have three Chiefs Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners holding her to account instead of one.

She said: “I've got a much wider reach now. I've got three police force areas to have that responsibility for. And just that range - going from murder, kidnapping and science all the way through to boats and drones. Just the range of policing specialism is really exciting and a new area for me."

ACC Sebire starts in the role next Monday (18 May) said she is “really excited to be taking it on”.

ACC Fullwood said: “I have seen JPS develop into one of the most mature, experienced and forward-thinking collaborations and I know ACC Sebire will continue this great work moving forward.”