Police

The police are to be given new powers to stop and search anyone suspected of carrying a corrosive substance in public. The move will enable officers to enforce a new offence of carrying corrosives in a public place, part of the Offensive Weapons Bill currently being considered by Parliament.

It has emerged that 500 people per month caught with cannabis in Scotland are avoiding prosecution as police issue warnings instead. Anti-drugs campaigners have criticised the policy as a “soft touch” approach but police have defended their use of recorded police warnings (RPWs) as a way

Police Scotland has abandoned plans to roll out controversial 'cyber kiosks' which would allow them to harvest data from mobile phones. Concerns were previously raised over their use in Edinburgh and Stirling, where they were tested without any human rights assessment.

Police officer numbers have seen a small increase in the last quarter but have decreased over the past year. The key findings of the statistics, published today by Scotland’s chief statistician, are:

Domestic abuse offenders could be given mandatory lie-detector tests upon release from prison under new proposals. The polygraph tests are among the measures included in the Domestic Abuse Bill, which would also introduce a ban on cross-examination of victims by their alleged abusers in family court

A report by the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) has found that Police Scotland failed to record a report for concern for a 25-year-old vulnerable man who went missing and was later found dead. The man’s body was discovered on the beach near Musselburgh Harbour at 1750 ho