It provides law enforcement and security for an area of 1,311 square miles (3,400 km2) and population of 856,000 people,[1] in a predominantly rural county.

Its emblem is a crowned Brunswick star containing the heraldic badge of Cambridgeshire County Council.

In 2001 the constabulary conducted one of Peterborough's biggest police enquiries following the racist murder of teenager Ross Parker.

[7] 2002 saw the Soham murders, an event that led to the biggest investigation in the history of Cambridgeshire police and one of the most expensive in the country, costing £3.5million.

[8] In March 2006, as part review on policing nationally the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke proposed the creation of an East Anglian force merging Cambridgeshire with Norfolk and Suffolk.

There is also collaboration on a seven-force function with the adjacent forces of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent with serious incident, counter terrorism and intelligence under the regional organised crime unit, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU).

They are: Cambridge (known simply as Parkside, after the street it is based on), Histon, Sawston, Ely, Cambourne, St Ives, Huntingdon town, St Neots, March, Wisbech, Hampton and Peterborough (known as Thorpe Wood, after the local nature park).

Northern local policing headquartered at Thorpe Wood, covers the city of Peterborough and the district of Fenland.

In its latest PEEL inspection, Cambridgeshire Constabulary was rated as follows:[23] In 2019, the constabulary was involved in the Channel 4 reality programme Famous and Fighting Crime[24] where five personalities Penny Lancaster, Jamie Laing, Katie Piper, Sandi Bogle and Marcus Brigstocke acted as special constables for the force.