'Chase tax dodgers, don't cut budgets,' says Scotland's rank-and-file police chief

Speaking in front of all four main party leaders at the SPF's annual conference in Turnberry, Mr Docherty said problems facing the force would take statesmen and stateswomen, not politicians, to solve.

And that would mean going after those who are not paying their share to society, not cutting vital budgets such as policing.

Mr Docherty said: "The Scottish Police Federation is all too aware of the serious risk to policing with the attack on budgets due to the financial problems and the austerity drive.

"Let me address the elephant in the room.

"The police budget is being cut. It can be cut no more. The expectation to make more savings cannot be delivered without hurting the police service, police pay and police numbers.

"Police officers are owed so many days off that they are almost impossible to count.

"They are owed so many hours of unpaid overtime that it would almost bankrupt the service if the debt was called in now.

"This tells us there is no spare police capacity.

"It is unacceptable to suggest that police officers should be expected to face an enforced reduction in their pay and conditions and, by extension, pay for the privilege of policing in Scotland."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and opposition politicians Jim Murphy of Labour, Ruth Davidson of the Conservatives and Willie Rennie are all at Turnberry to hear the views of the rank-and-file and share their positions ahead of next month's UK general election.

Mr Docherty was speaking after Scotland's national force announced a funding black hole of £11m. That is one per cent of its budget on paper - but with pay untouchable insiders warn of serious cuts to come.

Sir Stephen House, the chief constable, on Tuesday told his ruling board, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), that "extreme measures" would be needed to balance his budget.

Sir Stephen also hinted at politically difficult decisions between the general election and the Holyrood vote in 2016.

Mr Docherty said: "We have been presented with the binary choice of cutting spending or increasing taxes as if there is no other way.

"Well there is another way - it's old fashioned, but taxes could be collected!

"How can it be right that aggressive tax avoidance is tolerated when corrosive cuts to public services are lauded?

"How perverse do a country's priorities have to be for that to be close to right. If you undermine policing, you erode the opportunity to deliver safety and security and actively work against improving the life chances of many.

"If you choose to do so you will be failing in the first duty of government and we won't let that pass without a fight.

"Whoever forms the next government must put human needs ahead of financial greed.

"I couldn't agree more with Karyn McLuskey of the Violence Reduction Unit when she says that the challenges we face aren't for politicians, they are for statesmen!

"Do your parties have what it takes? Expecting the police to do more with less is fanciful nonsense. All that can be delivered with less is less."

Mr Docherty said he feared that his members could become "political whipping boys for what are ultimately poor political choices".

He also suggested policing had already been caught up in big politics - describing some media coverage as "unfair".

The SPF has at times defended the single force and at times questioned its leadership over issues like stop-and-search. SPF leaders have long warned that performance indicators for the tactic could lead to a targets-culture, even if this was not intended.

This week HM Inspector of Constabulary endorsed their position - also suggesting that stop and search figures were unreliable.

Mr Docherty said he simply did not believe them - and warned against getting rid of the traditional Scottish "consensual stop and search", when a member of the public empties their pockets voluntarily.

The Scottish Government on Tuesday set up a group to look at whether stop-and-search in Scotland should follow the English model, where all searches are enforced by an officer - rather than requested - on the basis of a specific suspicion.

Mr Docherty said: "I simply refuse to believe that police in Scotland searched over half a million of our citizens, regardless of what the numbers say.

"Some commentators would have you believe that by creating a legislative framework for all searches, all would be right in the world. They are wrong. It is simply impossible to codify the myriad of different circumstances where asking - I repeat asking - someone's cooperation with a search is currently the right thing to do.

"Be under no illusion, voluntary searches are an important feature of a police officer's tool kit."

Finally, Mr Docherty took a swipe at the culture of crime recording and statistics, which he partly blames for the stop-and-search controversy.

He said: "Police statistics demand swathes of resources and if things keep going as they currently are, we will soon have more people counting than we will actually delivering the job.

"We might never be free of targets, but unless they undergo major adjustments then we will continue along this road of policing for statistics instead of policing for the public."