The union representing rank and file police officers in Northern Ireland has said that time is not on their side to get officer numbers back up to acceptable levels.
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland was reacting after the PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told the policing board that he has only 4,500 deployable officers out of a force of around 6,400.
The rest are either on sick leave or restricted duties.
Police Federation chairman Liam Kelly said PSNI strength had reduced by a further 42 officers in the last month.
He said: "I have previously warned that our Executive is sleepwalking policing towards oblivion."
Mr Boutcher told the board he was embarking on a three-year recovery plan to lift officer numbers back to 7,000 within three years.
The service is under huge pressure both financially and in terms of workload.
During recent race riots in Belfast, the chief constable had to increase shift lengths to 12 hours, cancel rest days and bring in 80 officers from Police Scotland to help.
"I will be clear again, we cannot lower our numbers any further," Mr Boutcher told the board.
"The recent challenging events have shown the reality of deployable police officer numbers, which are now in the region of 4,500 when we take into account sickness absence and duty restrictions.
"I will be preparing a recovery plan to address this," he said.
Mr Boutcher said his service has been underfunded for years, leaving a smaller, less resilient workforce to serve the public.
He is running a shortfall of £34m (€30m) after what he has described as an "unrealistic budget settlement".
The Police Federation said it was vital that the chief constable's recovery plan was funded by the Executive.
"The dithering and procrastination need to stop so that policing can effectively recover as quickly as possible," Mr Kelly said.
