FRONTLINE policing in Lancashire is no longer safe from cuts with the force’s elite murder squad set to be cut.

The constabulary has confirmed that it now has to save £50m over the next four years and the Lancashire Police Federation claims this will directly impact on catching criminals.

And the loss of frontline officers goes back on an initial pledge from the force to protect them.

Federation secretary Mark Sweet said that despite police chiefs already identifying £10m of savings by the April 2011 deadline, that figures has now risen to £17m.

It means many of the 43 ongoing or complete organisational reviews of departments are now going back to the drawing board to find even more savings.

The Force Major Incident Team (FMIT), which deals with Lancashire’s biggest cases such as murder and manslaughter, is set to lose 17 officers - one superintendent, two inspectors, four sergeants and 10 detective constables.

Three teams covering Lancashire have been reduce to two, with a senior investigating officer covering Eastern, Pennine and Southern, and another looking after Western, Northern and Central.

Also announced so far are the loss of six custody sergeants and Lancashire’s 24-hour air support unit cover is being cut back to 20 hours.

On the FMIT cuts, Mr Sweet said: “Cases will still be investigated, but if they get a lot of cases coming in together at the same time, there will clearly be less people available for each one.

“The job will still be done, but cases will be pushed to the back.

“The level of these cuts are going to damage the organisation and reduce the level of service we provide to the public.”

Mr Sweet claimed that the estimated figure of 1,000 job losses in the next four years, was now ‘realistically anything up to 1,200’ with both police officers and staff affected.

“At the start of the process the talk was about protecting frontline police. They are no longer saying that. It’s now ‘the last place they will make cuts’.

“That’s a very significant change in position.”

A spokesman for the force said: “We have been preparing for cuts for some time and to date we have identified savings of around £10million, but following the budget announcement it has become clear that this won't be enough.

"We believe that we may have to find around £50million over the next four years."