Police in Scotland have used stop and search powers to check 39,000 people suspected of breaking the law.

The Scotsman reports:

POLICE are carrying out tens of thousands of stop and searches in the hunt for drugs and weapons.

New figures revealed that use of the powers has nearly quadrupled in recent years.

Officers conducted a total of 38,788 stop and searches in Lothian and Borders between last April and March, with firearms and stolen property among the haul recovered. The use of searches has soared since 2005-6 when only 11,075 were executed in the force area.

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