Stop and search ‘does not make nation a police state’

KENNY MacAskill has defended stop and search tactics and denied they have turned Scotland into a ‘police state’.

He claimed Police Scotland’s controversial approach is needed to stop primary school children developing alcohol problems and to tackle knife crime.

More than 500,000 searches were carried out between April and December, although Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has admitted some are ‘made up’ by officers.

Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has called for police powers to be curbed so that officers need to have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.

But the Justice Secretary told a Victim Support Scotland event at the SNP conference the powers are needed to keep young people safe. ‘There has been a large number carried out, but when you do the arithmetic it’s one officer doing one stop and search per week,’ he said.

‘This is not a police state. It does not seem to me to be an area that is dangerous.

‘One reason we’re making significant inroads into knife crime is stop and search. ‘

Asked about ten-year-olds being stopped, he said it was vital to tackle youth drinking, he said: ‘If those youngsters have a bottle of cheap cider then actually it might be in the best interests of that child to have it taken off them.’

Mr Rennie said: ‘When it comes to stop and search, Kenny MacAskill just does not get it.

‘Police Scotland are stopping people hundreds of thousands of times every year, including hundreds of children aged ten or younger. We know that around three quarters of searches have little legal basis.’

Police Scotland says searches for alcohol have been the most successful, with 37 per cent proving positive and more than 60,000 drinks confiscated between April and September last year. They have also recovered 166 firearms, 4,273 other weapons including knives, and 110,000 stolen goods.