Why is it so hard to recruit a new police chief?
Brian Farmer/BBCSuffolk Constabulary has struggled to find a new chief constable after a recruitment drive ended in failure.
The job was advertised in June with a salary of £188,656 plus allowances, including relocation expenses, on a five year contract.
Interviews took place in July. Suffolk's Police and Commissioner (PCC), Tim Passmore said: "We had two rounds of interviews, we advertised twice, and unfortunately, of the four people who applied, nobody was quite up to the standard."
The job is set to be advertised again in 2027, so why can't Suffolk find a new leader for the force?
Rachel Kearton is retiring from the role in October, however she is already on leave.
Mark Webster came out of retirement to be appointed interim chief constable in August, having previously been in charge of Cleveland Police.
What was done to try to find a new chief?
A brochure was put together by the PCC's office, whose job it is to recruit chief constables, providing information about the role, living in Suffolk and house prices.
Clearly the role was expected to attract applications from further afield.
When the Suffolk job was advertised in 2022, it offered a salary of £151,000, showing a rise of £37,000 in four years.
Staffordshire Police is also looking for a chief constable, offering a salary of £10,000 more than that of Suffolk.
In Essex, a deputy chief constable role is being advertised, with a salary of £178,000.
Suffolk Police and Crime CommissionerWhy is recruitment an issue?
Concerns over the number of people coming forward in such roles are not new. A blog post on the National Police Chief's Council website in 2018 was titled: "Who wants to be a chief constable? Sadly, the answer to this is too few people."
Written by Sara Thornton, the former chief constable at Thames Valley Police, it explains that potential applicants have reservations about job security if they were to fall out with the local PCC, a reluctance to relocate and financial disincentives.
Sarah Jones MP, the government's policing minister, said in July: "There are on average fewer than three applicants for each chief constable job, which is frankly woeful, and many are filled by internal applicants.
"We do not have the pool of people going for these jobs that we want to see."
A report by the Police Leadership Commission, found the system for identifying and developing leaders was too weak, with chief constable roles in England and Wales often attracting a single suitable candidate.
It also pointed to low morale and motivation within the service, recommending reformed recruitment and promotion processes.
What's going to happen now?
Passmore said he would work through the rest of the year to find a new leader.
"It's really important we have someone who's going to champion what we need to do in Suffolk, bring the workforce along with them, so that we can be really proud of our police force - recognising all the excellent work that's done, but building on that to take the organisation forward," he said.
He added that he would be working with Webster and his contacts to find a permanent appointment and hoped other applicants would also come forward.
He said: "I think working together, I am confident, I can't say it's guaranteed, that we will find the right person to take us forward."
On a national level, Jones said a body is being set up through the police reform programme to help with recruitment.
She added that the government had listened to the report about how to improve the pipeline up to chief constable level and how to achieve a better system of promotion, to ensure a good cohort of people with a diversity of talent apply for every single job.
The Police Leadership Commission recommended that a central panel for appointing chief constables should be formed to make sure candidates met the correct standards.
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