London's Metropolitan Police has given Lambeth Youth Council 20,000 to develop a stop-and-search training video, which will be distributed to police forces all over England.

Members of Lambeth Youth Council, aged between 13 and 21, are working on a video to educate police on how they should conduct stop and search, a police procedure that has courted controversy over its disproportionate use with ethnic minorities.

As well as filming locals' opinions, film students from Southwark College and members of the youth council have been given permission to film officers in patrol cars.

In March this year, youth council member Jerry Yawe told a parliamentary youth hearing on community cohesion that Lambeth police officers had insufficient experience of dealing with multicultural groups.

Amarjit Chanion, youth council development manager at Lambeth Council, said the video will ask police officers to maintain respect, courtesy and offer clear explanations for stop and search, but will also inform young people of their rights.

"Most of this work looks at how young people feel when they are stopped and searched," said Chanion. "In all the workshops, issues about the shame and embarrassment of a visible search come out strongly. Young people don't like being searched in front of friends or members of the public as it provokes them."

Filming for the project has begun and the finished video is due for completion between February and April 2004.

Stop and search will be discussed during a debate this September, involving members of the youth council and Lambeth police. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, has also been invited.