MOVES to cut police officers’ pay will not protect jobs, the chairman of Dorset’s Police Federation has warned.

Home secretary Theresa May said yesterday that “extraordinary circumstances” meant the government had to reform terms and conditions to keep officers on the streets.

But Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, described Mrs May’s suggestion to cut pay as “opportunism” and said he did not believe frontline jobs would be protected by pay cuts.

“They are already cutting the numbers of police officers, therefore saving on wages anyway. They are going to get rid of people regardless of whether or not there are pay cuts,” he said.

Overtime pay and housing and travel allowances are expected to fall under the spotlight.

Mr Chamberlain said police officers were the subject of a two-year pay freeze, which started in September last year.

“We are not asking for a pay rise. All we are asking for is fair remuneration and to be able to get on with our jobs of protecting our communities,” he said.

He said the Police Federation supported a decrease in overtime. He added: “We are not able to take industrial action because of our regulations so all we ask for is a fair system of pay.”

Last month the Dorset Police Authority agreed to cut 248 jobs by March 2012 in a bid to save £18 million over four years.

Mrs May told a meeting in Westminster yesterday: “No home secretary wants to cut police officers' pay packages.

“But, with a record budget deficit, these are extraordinary circumstances.

“But, up and down the country, police officers and staff I speak to – as well as ordinary members of the public – say they would prefer us to look at pay and conditions rather than lose thousands of posts.”

Ex-rail regulator Tom Winsor is leading a wide-ranging review of police pay and conditions, which will report next Tuesday.