THAMES Valley Police has used its stop and search power more than 5,000 times this year already.

From January until June, officers carried out a total of 5,470 searches in the region.

Out of the thousands searched across Thames Valley for carrying illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something used to commit a crime, 11 were under the age of 10.

Read more: Thames Valley Police rated inadequate by inspectors

However, the majority of people stopped were between the ages of 18 and 24.

Figures released by Police.UK revealed that 2,924 of the searches made so far this year were on white people.

People classed as Asian have been stopped 628 times and black people 487 times.

Thames Valley Police covers the whole of Oxfordshire as well as Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

In more than half of the stops, police used their powers to search people on suspicion of carrying drugs.

Read also: Timings announced for power station demolition

Suspicion of carrying an offensive weapon, like a knife, accounted for 609 of the searches.

A further 30 searches were carried out looking for firearms, while 631 were carried out on the hunt for stolen goods.

People threatening to harm somebody or those who might be carrying items used in a crime accounted for just under 10 per cent of the searches.

Just under 75 per cent the stop and searches – 3,908 – resulted in ‘no further action’.

Earlier in the year this paper revealed that, on average, 70 per cent of crimes in Oxford get filed under ‘no further action’ after initial investigation.

However, 874 of the searches led to an arrest.

Around 300 searches which found cannabis or the class C drug khat resulted in a warning and 53 others resulted in a fine.

Other outcomes included a charge sent in the post.