Labour is to renew calls for Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to resign during a Holyrood debate on policing later this week.
Mr MacAskill has come under fire after a string of controversial issues relating to Police Scotland, including the stop-and-search of children and armed police on routine patrols.
Labour MSP Graeme Pearson, a former senior police officer, has lodged a motion claiming that Mr MacAskill has "failed to provide effective governance" of the force in delivering public accountability.
The motion, which calls for Mr MacAskill to step down, will be debated by MSPs at Holyrood during Labour Party business on Wednesday.
Mr Pearson, Labour's shadow justice secretary, said: "Kenny MacAskill has stumbled from crisis to crisis as Justice Secretary and is becoming a serious embarrassment for this Government.
"There has been fundamental policy decisions taken on arming of police on routine duties, stop-and-searches and target-setting without proper debate and consultation.
"MacAskill has failed to adequately answer the serious questions asked of him and this is simply unacceptable.
"Police Scotland must allow policing by consent to secure public confidence and in order to ensure this happens we must have a strong justice secretary that is willing to hold them to account, currently we don't.
"Alex Salmond is unwilling to make any moves to replace him and rather than waiting for the inevitable reshuffle from Nicola Sturgeon, the Cabinet Secretary should do the honourable thing and resign."
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie launched his own attack on the Justice Secretary last week following Police Scotland's u-turn on the arming of police on routine patrols.
During exchanges at First Minister's Questions in Holyrood, Mr Rennie urged Mr Salmond to take Mr MacAskill with him when he stands down in November, a plea dismissed by the First Minister.
Mr MacAskill was again in the spotlight over the weekend for comments he made on Twitter comparing efforts to recoup poll tax arrears from independence referendum voters to efforts to disenfranchise black people after the US civil war.
A spokesman for the First Minister said: "This is a pathetic stunt from Labour, who seem to be going out of their way to criticise the single police force which they fully supported the creation of.
"The reality is that this Justice Secretary has presided over a near 40-year low in recorded crime across Scotland, as well as police recruitment which has taken the number of officers in Scotland to record high levels, while force strength south of the border has plummeted by more than 14,000 over the same period.
"These are the benchmarks which the public care about, which the Justice Secretary has consistently delivered on and on which this administration will be judged."
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