The Tayside pilot, taking advantage of powers contained in the Anti-social Behaviour (Scotland) Act, allows police to issue immediate £40 fines for offences such as vandalism and urinating in public.

Once a penalty notice has been issued, the recipient must either pay up or request a court hearing. Payment of the fines involves no admission of guilt and does not result in a criminal record.

Officers in Tayside issued 72 fixed penalty notices for anti-social behaviour in the first week of the scheme alone, and the force described the powers as “well received.”

The trial is due to run for a year, but Mr Dickson called for the fines to be imposed across the country to show offenders the “immediate consequences” of their actions.

“The gut instinct of a law enforcer is to want as many criminals locked up as possible, but I am not interested in putting more lower-level offenders in prison,” he told a conference in Edinburgh.

“I think sending more people to prison is not the answer because it creates more criminals.

“I think that with low-level offending we should take a more discretionary role and issue fixed-penalty fines or conditional offers before reporting them to the procurator fiscal.”

However, he added as a cautionary note, “We would have to implement discretion and consult with local communities over bringing in this system.”

The Executive’s Anti-social Behaviour Act contains a wide range of provisions to tackle bad behaviour, including the use of fixed penalty notices.

The Lord Advocate has provided guidance to officers on circumstances in which consideration should or should not be given to the issue of a penalty notice.

The pilot project in Tayside is being run with £130,000 funding from the Scottish Executive, and will be evaluated when it ends.

It has already been welcomed by the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, who said it would hopefully reduce re-offending.