Police officers are being driven to make “ludicrous” arrests for trivial incidents to bolster government targets, the new Justice Secretary will be told.

The leaders of 130,000 police officers have drawn up a dossier of “lunacy” on Britain’s streets. They say that children are being arrested for throwing cream buns and bits of cucumber while adults are getting criminal records for offences that merit nothing more than a ticking-off.

The pressure to get results is so bad, they say, that officers are criminalising and alienating their traditional supporters in Middle England and many are so disillusioned that they are considering quitting.

What police describe as a target-driven criminal justice culture will come under attack today as Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, who was appointed Secretary of State a week ago, faces a debate at the annual conference of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers in England and Wales.

The conference in Blackpool will consider whether the drive to meet targets is destroying police officers’ traditional discretion to deal with minor offences on the streets without fuss or bureaucracy.

Officers say that ten years ago a minor incident involving someone without a criminal record would have led to “words of advice”. Now, the federation says, performance targets mean that the people involved are becoming criminal statistics.

Jan Berry, the chairman of the federation, said: “We have police officers who are considering leaving the service over this because it is not the job they signed up to do.

“These examples we have compiled are ludicrous, but when people are being pushed to show results they will use anything they can to demonstrate they are doing a good job.”

She added: “Just talking to people and giving them a few words of advice cannot be counted as easily as a ticket. But sometimes it is just as effective as taking someone to court.”

A spokesman for the federation added: “We have got into the situation where everyone is so busy chasing targets and securing ticks in boxes we are on the verge of distancing ourselves from Middle England.”

He said: “The cases we have compiled show incidents where an officer has been under such pressure to deliver that it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous. Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask: ‘What the hell is going on?’.”

The spokesman added: “It is a government agenda that is going down this avenue. Officers are saying they are forced to make arrests or cautions because the Government believes they should be judged by what can be counted.”

Chief constables have also complained about the increasing pressures to meet both national and local targets. Last autumn the Home Office issued 30 general targets that police must meet, as well as more specific figures.

Earlier this year John Reid, the Home Secretary, who will be speaking at the conference on Wednesday, promised that he would cut some of the targets. But last month officers in Greater Manchester were warned about issuing fixed-pen-alty notices to drunks for public order offences so that they would count towards their target of two detected offences a month.

Home Office research last year found a nationwide increase in drunks being penalised for causing harassment, alarm or distress. Researchers concluded that the trend may have been driven by government target-setting.

Notices issued for offences such as causing harassment, alarm or distress count as a “violent crime” and an “offence brought to justice” for the purposes of Home Office statistics.

The alternative, lesser charge of being drunk and disorderly does not count towards police detection targets.

Out of order

Crimes in the dossier include:

a man cautioned for being “in possession of an egg with intent to throw”

a child who threw a slice of cucumber at another child arrested after parents claimed it was an assault

a woman arrested on her wedding day for criminal damage to a car park barrier when her foot slipped on the accelerator

a child arrested for throwing buns at a bus

an officer told to caution a man for throwing a glass of water over his girlfriend

two children arrested under gun laws for being in possession of a toy pistol

Times Recommends

• Here’s one way MPs can redeem themselves
• Analysis: introducing the word 'failure'
• BA to cut tenth of jobs after disastrous summer