Seizures of drugs, weapons and alcohol have increased by one third, despite a slight fall in the number of people being searched, according to the police.
Officers carried out 519,213 stop and searches in the eight months after Police Scotland was formed last April and came up with a “positive result” in 19.7% of cases.
The total number of stop and searches was down 0.2% on the same period under Scotland’s eight legacy police forces in 2012, but during that period they only found something in 13.9% of cases.
The police say the rise in positive searches has helped reduce violent crime. The figures were revealed at Police Scotland Fife Divisional headquarters in Glenrothes.
More than 90% of searches related to drugs, alcohol and weapons.
Some 37% of searches to detect firearms yielded a positive result, with 166 firearms or associated items recovered and 4,273 weapons, including knives, seized.
About one-third yielded stolen property, with more than 11,000 goods recovered. Alcohol was the most common item at 37%, with 61,541 recoveries.
Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson said: “Stop and search is one of a number of tactics that front-line police officers within our communities are able to apply, if and when they have reasonable grounds to do so.”
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Police Scotland’s priority is to keep our streets and communities safe.
“By taking a preventative and proportionate approach, proactively disrupting and deterring criminal behaviour, police can stop crime in its tracks and save dealing with the consequences later.
“Stop and search is one tactic amongst many police use to cut crime, and Police Scotland’s positive results so far suggest this is working.
“This builds on our most recent crime stats, which show violent crime falling by 47% between 2006-07 and 2012-13, and crimes of handling an offensive weapon at the lowest in 27 years, dropping by 60% in the same period.
“The experience in Fife and elsewhere in the country shows that, working with communities, stop and search can stop criminal behaviour before it happens, take weapons and drugs off the streets and potentially save lives.”
Picture by George McLuskie