Senior police officers have launched a ferocious attack on David Cameron's law and order plans, warning that they will corrupt the traditions of British policing and undermine public confidence in the justice system.

Influential figures including Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, former Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair and the head of the Police Superintendents' Association (PSA) have condemned Cameron's plans for directly elected police chiefs, a move that reflects the Tories' desire to decentralise control to local communities.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the current head of Scotland Yard, is also said to be "extremely perturbed" about the Conservatives' election proposals.

Police chiefs warn that the Tory leader's plans will destroy the fundamental principles of British policing, impair its global reputation and risk political interference in operational decisions. Some believe that a Conservative government intent on directly elected commissioners could precipitate mass resignations.

Senior officers met Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, to air their grievances, but say their concerns were rejected.

Last week's party manifesto launch confirmed the Conservatives' commitment to replacing police authorities with directly elected individuals who would decide "policing priorities for local communities" and exercise control over forces' budget and strategy.

Police chiefs, fearing their operational independence would be imperilled, believe the public should be alerted to the Tory plans, a move that leaves Cameron facing a potential mutiny from senior officers if the Tories win the election.

Orde even warned that the Conservatives' election pledge would compromise public safety. He said: "The simple question is, 'Does it make us better at keeping safe?'. Part of that is public confidence and the public must have confidence in a system of oversight, and I think much of that confidence stems from the fact that oversight is independent in the sense that it is not one elected person. If you want to change pretty much 200 years of policing tradition, there needs to be a full and open debate."

Derek Barnett, president of the PSA, which represents 1,600 senior officers, accused the Tories of playing politics with policing: "The public has a high degree of confidence in the police, particularly in relation to other public servants, and that should not be jeopardised for political ideology."

He warned that Cameron's doctrine to decentralise control did not work for police forces: "Policing is so fundamentally important to a free society, a peaceful society, that to play politics with the way it is organised and managed and financed, to me is not the right approach."

Blair, who resigned as Metropolitan Police commissioner in 2008 amid claims Tory London mayor Boris Johnson had forced him out for political reasons, said the Conservatives had failed to grasp the right solution: "The understanding of what the police do and don't do is getting very frayed. There is clearly a problem. My view is that the Conservatives have leapt to a solution too quickly."

Orde, the second most senior officer in the country after Stephenson, reiterated that he would step down if he were a chief constable forced to work under Cameron's plans. "I could not work in a system where I could be told how to deliver policing," said the former Northern Ireland chief constable.

Blair also warned that the Conservatives' plans were similar to the US policing model, but appeared to lack the checks and balances deemed necessary in America. He said: "It has a whole series of checks and balances about the way in which police chiefs are appointed, including hearings and so on, that aren't in the Conservative proposals at all."

Chief superintendent Barnett added that it was time for the views of the police to be aired: "Parties are elected to government and we accept that. If what they want to do is unpopular with us, then we have a right to say so. If that means we are uncomfortable, we will say so.

"Can you imagine the sort of people who must be now sitting there rubbing their hands thinking, 'I want to be their elected commissioner?' "

A Tory spokesperson said: "We plan to significantly reduce the level of interference by the government in day-to-day policing. We want to be absolutely clear that elected commissioners will not have operational control over policing. But if we are to push more power and responsibility away from the Home Office and down to the front line, we also have to strengthen democratic accountability in individual force areas."