Crime and local taxation dominated the increasingly bitter exchanges between Labour and the SNP in the Holyrood hustings yesterday.

The four main parties were put on the spot at the Scottish Police Federation annual conference in Peebles, where there were calls for 60% of officers to be committed to response policing and talk of a national crisis.

All parties have promised to recruit extra officers, with Tories leading the bidding war with 1500, but the politicians were told double this was needed.

Strathclyde Police delegate Les Gray said: "I have to be honest, 1000 police officers is a joke, 1500 police officers is a joke - that is what the Strathclyde force needs alone.

"I think the Scottish Police Federation will be looking for at least 3000 police officers across Scotland."

SNP leader Alex Salmond said that £78m had been set aside in his party's spending commitments to help meet the target of recruiting 1000 officers. "It's top of the public's concerns and should be top of the budget priorities," he said.

Labour's Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson, said that while education was her party's key priority, she said that policing as part of its wider justice agenda was "right up there".

Tory leader Annabel Goldie pointed to the example of New York where increasing police by 50% with more officers on the streets had led to crime plummeting, adding: "I want the same to happen in Scotland, so that people will think twice before breaking the law."

Jeremy Purvis said the Liberal Democrats wanted 1000 community officers recruited while continuing the network of community wardens.

The conference had earlier heard from delegate Andy Moore who said that the majority of police officers are now carrying out "support functions" rather than primary response duties and he said at least 60% of officers should be engaged in 24/7 response police duties.

Fiona Morris, of Strathclyde Police, said frontline officers were "dangerously understaffed and overburdened, adding: "The thin blue line is now a dotted line with the government trying to fill the gaps with community wardens."

Meanwhile, Jack McConnell launched a tour of constituencies in Central Scotland with another attack on the SNP's local income tax policy. But in spite of posing a fresh set of 13 questions for the SNP on the issue, he was still unable to shed any fresh light on Labour's proposals to reform council tax. Mr McConnell said: "Under the proposals from Labour, every household will benefit from our commitment to keep rises below inflation, less than 11,000 households in Scotland will pay a little bit more, a proportion of the half-million households in Band A will pay a little bit less - some of the poorest families in Scotland - and between 500,000 and 600,000 pensioner households will have their water and sewerage charges cut and then abolished."

But on the numbers of those who would pay "a little bit more" or less he made clear that the details would be subject to a consultation exercise after May.

He disputed almost every aspect of the SNP's claim that most taxpayers would pay less under the local income tax plans: "These questions have to be answered by those who wish to tear up the current system, however unpopular, and whether or not it was introduced by the Conservatives."

But Nicola Sturgeon, deputy leader of the SNP, said even Labour's own local election manifesto in Edinburgh conceded the unfairness of the current council tax system.

She said: "For the last three weeks Labour have been totally unable to explain any aspect of their deeply unpopular council tax policy. They can't say who would gain, or who would lose out. They can't say how much money would be raised from increases at the top end of the scale or how much people at the bottom would save.

"The SNP's local income tax policy is fully costed, totally fair, and hugely popular."