A meeting of about 500 representatives of police federations from around the country will gather in Westminster on Wednesday lunchtime to decide how to respond to the pay proposal put forward by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith.
Options will include renegotiating the rights of the 140,000 police officers in England and Wales to stop industrial action being banned by law.
Jan Berry, who chairs the Police Federation, said: "I think we are definitely going to have to ballot people.
"There is so much anger and frustration out there at the moment. People who once would have sat back are now saying 'enough is enough'."
The home secretary announced last week that officers in England and Wales would receive a 2.5% increase, implemented from December 1 rather than backdated to September.
The Police Federation, which represents frontline officers, claimed this represented a pay rise of just 1.9% and immediately threatened legal action.
Ray Mallon, the former mayor of Middlesbrough who became known as Robocop for his introduction of zero tolerance policing in the city, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that police morale was low.
"The government are completely wrong and they should actually pay the police what they deserve, because they are doing a very good job under difficult circumstances," he said.
"To a large extent, it is not just about the money; it is the principle."
Berry said officers had lost faith in the pay resolution system after the rise was effectively devalued by the home secretary.
She said she expected that officers would be balloted on whether they would like to have industrial rights or, alternatively, access to a pay resolution system in which agreements would have to be adhered to by both sides.
"We will be asking officers if they want access to full industrial rights or a binding arbitration system because, at the moment, we have neither," said Berry.
"I don't know how many police officers want to go on strike but I know they do want a mechanism they can trust.
"Every police officer has human rights, the same as everyone else. If they give up a human right, they have got to have something in return."
The Police Superintendents' Association, the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association and their counterparts from Scotland and Northern Ireland are also due to take part in Wednesday's meeting.
