Police Scotland said increased use of stop and search had led to a fall in violent crime and knife carrying.
A paper being presented to the Scottish Police Authority showed the policy of the former Strathclyde force had now been rolled out across the country.
It said the creation of a single police service had allowed a standardisation of practice throughout the country.
Out of the 612,110 stop and searches by Strathclyde last year, 84,081 (13.7%) revealed something suspicious.
By comparison, figures for England and Wales showed 9% of searches on the street revealed a suspicious item.
Stop and search has been a long used tactic in which the police can lawfully stop a individual and search them for weapons, drugs, unlawful alcohol or stolen goods.
Officers are required to have reasonable suspicion to stop somebody but those suspicions cannot lawfully be based on personal factors such as age, gender or race.
The police authority meeting in Ayr will be told by Chief Constable Lesley Bain, head of analysis and performance, that stop and search work done in the old Strathclyde Police area and the new Police Scotland Edinburgh division demonstrated reductions in violence.
Strathclyde Police recorded a 49.2% fall in serious violent crimes between 2007/08 and 2012/13, which was against the national trend at that time.
Of the 612,110 stop and searches by officers in the Strathclyde area in 2012/13, 55.2% were carried out on the 16 to 29 age group; 83.8% were male and 97.1% white. Overall 12.6% were carried out on youths aged 15 and under. The black and minority ethic population of the Strathclyde Police area in the 2011 census was recorded at 2.45% of the total population.
Of the 8,261 stop and searches conducted in Edinburgh City between 1 April and 30 June 2013, 20.9% or 1,727 of these were positive, leading to the confiscation of unlawful items.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
"Stop and search" policy 'leads to fall in crime' in Scotland
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