"Basically it happens two or three times a week. It's real frustrating - the police treat me as a stereotypical black male, and as a criminal suspect."

Jane Hughes reports from New York

This black teenager's experience of the NYPD is typical. Young black men in New York are very aware that they are members of the ethnic group most often singled out for random police searches that sometimes turn violent.

For these youngsters, the police have come to be seen less as protectors, more as people to be feared. Incidents like the police shooting of an African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, outside his home in the Bronx in February have reinforced their fears.

That has prompted a group of black law enforcement officers to conclude that teenagers need to be shown how to have safe dealings with the police.

Police advice

On a Saturday morning in Brooklyn, a cinema serves as classroom for a group of teenagers getting advice on the police from the horse's mouth.

Role play shows what to do if the police raid your house

Using role play, off-duty officers show youngsters how to respond if police officers raid their homes, stop and search them on the street, or pull them over when they're driving along.

They warn them against wearing clothes that draw attention to themselves, like back-to-front baseball caps.

Michael Greys, one of those pioneering the workshops, explains: "Young black males are targeted. They're targeted for arrest, they're targeted for harassment, in some situations they're targeted for what becomes a fatality.

Back-to-front baseball caps can single a teenager out

"So consequently we have to teach young men what to do if they are approached by the police. If we can get one young man back to his family safely, we've done our job."

Hundreds of youngsters have already taken part in the workshops. Parents hope that by taking their children along, they will ensure their safety.

NYPD: No comment

The NYPD has refused to comment on the fact that officers in its ranks are offering training to black teenagers on how to have safe dealings with the police.

The shooting of Amadou Diallo caused uproar

Given the uproar over the Amadou Diallo shooting, it's an intensely sensitive subject. But privately, individual officers have said the department is unhappy about the workshops.

They do, after all, point towards serious strains between the African American community here and the police.

One former police officer, Robert Loudon, though, denies the workshops reflect badly on the police.

"There are many communities who feel unsafe around the police," he says.

"Any educational programme which would help the public to see why the police are doing what they are doing, and what the rules are - the procedural rules about stopping vehicles and stopping people - I think is a positive."