ONE in three people end up arrested after being stopped and searched in the street in Dumfries and Galloway.
Police carried out more than 1000 on-the-spot searches last year on people suspected of carrying weapons, drugs, or committing other offences.
So far this year, nearly 300 searches have been conducted – and the police hit rate is roughly 30 percent.
Police chief superintendent Steven Meikle said: “Last year in Dumfries and Galloway our officers carried out 1025 stop searches, 346 of which were positive.
“Year to date, we’ve undertaken 280 searches and 89 were positive.”
The police chief revealed the crime stats at Dumfries and Galloway Council’s police, fire and rescue sub committee last week.
He explained that officers were being very proactive with stop and search duties, particularly in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in May this year.
Mr Meikle told councillors: “The recent murder in Ayrshire of Kayden Moy and a violent incident involving teenagers at Portobello Beach has contributed to increased commentary and media coverage around the issue of young people and violence.
“Officers in Dumfries and Galloway will continue to conduct intelligence-led operations to recover weapons from those intent on bringing them into our communities.
“Those operations can involve the use of stop and search activity, which is a particularly effective policing tactic in securing a person’s safety.
“Intelligence-led stop and search is a valuable and effective policing tactic and contributes to the prevention investigation and detection of crime while keeping people safe.”
A police report tabled at last week’s meeting showed that between April 1 last year and March 31 this year, there were a total of 17,864 crimes/offences committed in this region.
This was an increase of 122 on the previous year, and equates to 49 offences per day.
