SCOTLAND'S most influential police chief has challenged First Minister Alex Salmond over how he can maintain his pledge there will be no cuts to the number of frontline police officers without cuts elsewhere in the service.

Kevin Smith, chief constable of the Central Scotland force, has questioned how the current 17,234 frontline officers can be retained without compulsory redundancies to reduce overall staffing which would affect civilian backroom staff.

The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpos) added the Scottish Government had made it clear the status quo of eight forces was not an option and “wicked problems” had to be aired.

Mr Smith’s intervention in the debate was made against the SNP’s plans to reduce the number of Scotland’s police forces from eight.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has already said eight is unsustainable and though he has not specified how few he wants, Labour and the Conservatives back a single national force.

In the closing speech to the association’s annual conference in Dunblane, Mr Smith said: “The question for all of us is how we can maintain 17,234 police officers and not use compulsory redundancies to reduce police staff numbers while still making the savings in the Sustainable Policing Budget.

“Can we understand, now, the affordability of maintaining police numbers at 17,234?”

He said Mr Salmond had made it clear at the Scottish Police Federation Conference that reform was no longer about making savings but “about the optimal number of police forces in Scotland and he has made it clear that, in his view, it would be less than eight”.

He added: “If it isn’t affordable under the current budget, which has been one of our shared assumptions, what is Scottish Government’s investment plan to make that happen?

“Whether the number of forces is one, three or eight in the future, there will be one, three or eight chief constables and directors of finance wanting to know that as well.”

A spokesman for Mr MacAskill said: “The existing eight-force structure is arbitrary and the SNP’s priority is bobbies not boundaries so that in the face of £1.3 billion cuts from Westminster we protect the 1000 extra police we have delivered, and invest in frontline policing rather than replicating back-office functions.

“The appropriate time to decide on whether the reform option should be a regional structure or one force is once all the evidence and views have been received in response to the consultation.”

Meanwhile, other senior officers have hit back at claims that creating 32 police forces in Scotland would make policing more efficient. The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents said the rise from eight forces suggested by independent think tank Reform Scotland made no financial or operational sense.

Association president, Chief Superintendent David O’Connor, said it would create even more challenges for policing. “It must be recognised that less forces will equal less duplication which in turn equals less expenditure and bureaucracy.”

Reform Scotland said the way to make policing more accountable is to set up forces aligned to local-authority boundaries.

Both the Labour and Conservative parties maintained their support for a single force.

Labour’s justice spokesman James Kelly said moving to a single force provided “a unique opportunity to make policing more local than ever”.

A Conservative spokesman said: “The key to enhanced local accountability is to create locally elected police chiefs who will be the public’s voice on local policing.”