POLICE tactics on using stop-and-search powers risk "alienating a generation" and an overhaul of their use must be ordered, MSPs have been told.
It comes after research by Edinburgh University revealed that hundreds of children under the age of 10 were targeted and more than 26,000 youngsters aged 14 and below had agreed to the police checks voluntarily.
At First Minister's Questions yesterday, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie questioned Alex Salmond about whether he was comfortable with the police tactics towards young people. He replied: "What I am comfortable with is that 70% of the stop-and-searches were consensual in terms of the regulations which were put forward.
"I am comfortable with the fact that, as Police Scotland has indicated, many of these stop and searches achieved the required result in terms of finding potentially offensive weapons or other aspects of behaviour.
"The thing that I am most satisfied with is the sharp reduction in offensive weapon carrying, and also in other serious crime."
Mr Rennie said: "I am genuinely disappointed that the First Minister is so blase about this encroaching police tactic without checks and balances.
"I think 750,000 people getting stopped and searched, 80% getting no result and young children being targeted is something the First Minister should be concerned about."
The report warned that rising use of the tactic risked infringing human rights and could lead to public disorder. He said this practice risked the "alienation of a generation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article