More than 100 frontline police posts will be lost as Thames Valley joins its specialist units with Hampshire in a bid to save £6.7m.

Armed response units, the dog section and roads policing will share training and equipment with the Hampshire force when the new Joint Operation Unit comes into force at the end of this year.

The move will create “borderless” policing between the two forces and could see highly-trained dog handlers, fire arms experts and road policing officers returned to normal duties in a bid to make the budget savings.

No police officer will be made redundant, but vacant posts will not be filled and other savings will come from equipment sharing and joint training.

A section 23 legal agreement which will cement the terms of the collaboration is likely to be signed by the end of this year, with the road policing teams the first to begin operations together in December.

Collaboration between the dogs units will follow next, with armed-response teams expected to start working together by the end of next year after the Olympics policing operation has finished.

Co-op manager Lance Hitchcock was confronted by a gunman who raided the Bloxham shop’s till last August.

The robber, 31-year-old Aaron Flemon of Rippington Drive, Marston, was later jailed for nine years.

However, he fears police will not be so effective under the new system.

He said: “The man got caught through DNA evidence and that was through the sniffer dog finding his glove. Without that they would not have got him.

“I would be worried about the response time if it takes them longer to get out.”

Chief Supt Chris Shead, of Thames Valley Police, heads the new unit.

He insisted: “We think we can do things more efficiently and more effectively.

“We will reduce the number of posts. It’s no secret, every force is having to reduce its numbers.

“The initial projections were we would reduce by 119 officers, but we think we can make the £6.7m savings by reducing slightly less than that. Hopefully, between 100 and 115 posts.”

The collaboration will see 400 specialist officers from the Thames Valley force working with roughly 400 of their Hampshire counterparts, doing away with the need to sign costly mutual aid agreements and the associated red tape when one force needs help from its neighbour.

There are no current plans to close bases such as the Kidlington roads policing unit, but Hampshire officers could be called into Oxfordshire if all Thames Valley road officers are busy at major incidents when another accident occurs.

Chief Supt Shead said: “If we get this right the public won’t notice.”

He added: “Particularly around that border area where the two forces meet, eventually that will become borderless for us.”

Already trials have been conducted with road policing officers from both forces patrolling together in July to test systems and compatibility.

The police federation for Thames Valley Police is backing the new working arrangement – so long as it does not affect response times.

Secretary Andy Viney said: “We have been and continue to be fully supportive of the collaboration process as it is a way of saving money and saving roles and positions in the organisation.

“However, we maintain the position that the collaboration must supply the same level of service to the public that the separate forces did before collaboration.”