The Police Federation NI says it is exploring whether legislation can be changed to allow police officers to take industrial action over pay and conditions disputes.
It is currently illegal for prison, army and police officers to take strike or any other industrial action.
In a wide-ranging interview with Belfast Live, the outgoing PFNI Chairman Mark Lindsay said "that contract that policing has had with the government has been well and truly shattered."
Read more: Coronavirus pandemic sees retiring cops asked to stay on
"We are looking now very, very seriously at recalibrating what policing is," he said.
"Because there's been a contract between policing and government a lot of the industrial rights that are open to other public services, aren't open to police officers.
"We are now seriously considering changing that, does the law need to be changed to allow police officers to take more direct action whenever they're not content around their pay or conditions?"
Mr Lindsay has led the PFNI for the past seven years and will be succeeded by the organisation's current secretary Liam Kelly at the end of the month.
As he prepares to hand over the baton, Mr Lindsay said matters were fast reaching ahead and described the pay review process that the PFNI feeds into as being more concerned with the "affordability of government and not the fair pay of officers".
He warned that action taken could include officers working to regulation which he claimed would have a drastic impact.
"What people refuse or don't want to understand is a lot of police work is done on the goodwill and professional dedication that officers show on a day and daily basis," he added.
"If that is removed or eroded in some way, then I think that's where the public and the service will notice a difference.
"To do anything more directly requires a change in legislation as it's illegal for officers to engage in any sort of industrial action, so that's the sort of thing that needs to be explored."
He said politicians had a lot to answer for, citing promises made in both the Good Friday Agreement and the New Decade New Approach agreement in 2016 to increase officer numbers to 7,500.
The current figure sits in and around the 7,000 mark but the PFNI Chair said with no budget certainty and recruitment slowing down, that figure could fall by about 1,000 when retirements and leavers are taken into account.
"Important areas of policing will be set aside, people will notice slower response times," he said.
"We've got to be very careful of where we get to, because to go to 6,000 or 6,100 officers could take 10 or more years to redress that balance.
"Unfortunately it may take some catastrophic incidents to show that investment in policing needs to continue."
Mr Lindsay also claimed that officers who were lower down the ranks felt there was a disparity between disciplinary processes for them and those in more senior positions.
"What we find is that small errors and sometimes they are small errors is treated with the most severe discipline," he said.
"Yet if it's at a higher level or senior level, it's seen as organisational learning.
"If people do slip below standards and commit offences or disciplinary issues, yes that should be properly investigated.
"But more and more and more, officers are finding for what might be seen as a minor error of judgement or misdemeanour, they're waiting two to three years to be either punished or with the threat of punishment hanging over them."
Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the PSNI expected the highest standards from its officers and it would investigate where mistakes were made, regardless of rank.
"The purpose of any type of misconduct procedure is to address identified issues, maintain public confidence in the Police Service to uphold high standards of policing and deter any further wrongdoing," he said.
"Consideration can be given to less severe outcomes which should be applied if they adequately deal with the issues identified, while protecting the public interest.
"It is important that an outcome is imposed, even if that leads to difficulties for the individual officer or staff member.
"Any misconduct processes and procedures are conducted fairly, objectively, transparently and free from unlawful discrimination."
Read more: Covid brought PSNI officers into conflict with normally law-abiding people, says Police Federation
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