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One of the youngest councillors in the country has described his "frightening" experience of being stopped with his two friends, who were searched by plainclothes police near his London home.

Westminster City Councillor Hamza Taouzzale, 19, has opened up about his experience ahead of a meeting with Met senior officers over the incident.

He said he raised the incident with police because they needed to know how the encounter with plainclothes officers off Church Street could leave young BAME Londoners like him with less trust in the force.

"It’s changed the way I look at police officers now, unfortunately," he said.

"It may catch more criminals, it may have more crimes on paper and push up your stats. But at the end of the day, it’s picking on the most vulnerable in society.

"Someone who has done nothing wrong should not be put in a position where they are scared of the very people who are meant to enforce the law."

The university student and Labour councillor has described how he and two friends were parked waiting for a friend so they could play football on the afternoon of August 22, when an unmarked car pulled in close to them.

(Image: Copyright Unknown)

Cllr Taouzzale claims three men got out and started questioning him but did not identify themselves with warrant cards - this point is disputed by the Met officers who say they did show the cards.

He also said they were not wearing body-worn cameras.

One officer asked Cllr Taouzzale about some paper they saw him throw out the window.

"They thought I might have thrown a bag of drugs out the window or something along those lines.

"What was really peculiar was that he picked up the pieces of paper so he could easily see they were pieces of paper, but for him he wasn’t content with that."

Cllr Taouzzale said one of his friends asked them why they were being stopped and claims the situation "escalated."

The officers asked them to step outside the car and had his two friends stand against a wall to be body searched.

"It was a bit frightening, obviously - we hadn’t done anything wrong," he said.

(Image: Copyright Unknown)

He claimed they also asked for his friends' ID and photographed their cards. The only ID he had on him was his Westminster City Council pass, he said.

He said he felt "humiliated" as passers by stared at the group.

"When people do walk past and see three young people being stopped and searched by police their first instinct is 'these are bad young people'," he said.

The inspector in charge of the officers met with Cllr Taouzzale last month to listen to his concerns, a Met spokesman said.

They added: "Mr Taouzzale was assured that all officers wearing body worn video cameras are expected to keep it on when conducting searches.

"The officers reported they did identify themselves as police officers and showed Mr Taouzzale their warrant cards. Once it had been established the item thrown out the car window was not drugs, Mr Taouzzle was not searched."

The council's chief executive has also arranged for him to meet with the borough's commander after Cllr Taouzzale told leader Cllr Nickie Aiken about the experience.

"I was disturbed to hear about this case," she said. "I both completely understand and share Cllr Taouzzale’s deep concern."

(Image: Get West London)

Cllr Aiken said she had raised his case with Met Commissioner Cressida Dick during a meeting on policing issues in early November.

"I know the police are investigating this incident and I will be keen to see the outcome of that."

Cllr Taouzzale said he was grateful for the Conservative leader's support, saying he wanted to have an open dialogue with local police about how stop and search affected young BAME communities.

His friends had been through it before, Cllr Taouzzale said, and their blasé reaction was what drove him to share the story with the police.

"They just thought it was a normal thing that happens to young people…one of those things you accept because you are a young person, you live in a poor area and you are from a BAME background and it’s 'fine', it’s 'OK' it’s 'normal' - which gets me, to be honest with you.

"Because it shouldn’t be normal, that because we’re less advantaged than others - we’re 'more likely to commit a crime' and we 'should be searched'. It’s not the way to go around things.”

(Image: Hannah McKay/PA Wire)

Why the controversy over stop and search?

Scotland Yard has increasingly fewer officers on the beat, and is under pressure as the capital's homicide death toll soars.

The Met has in recent weeks asked for more powers to stop and search amid a grim year of youth turf war violence.

The force has courted controversy as police figures for England and Wales showed black people were eight times more likely than whites to be stopped and searched in 2016/17.

But the Met say stop and search is a "hugely" important power to keep Londoners safe.

"It is extremely valuable in tackling knife and gun crime, resulting in over 4,200 arrests for weapon possession in the capital last year," a spokesman said.

"Commissioner Cressida Dick has been clear that she supports the increased use of stop and search and that officers who carry out this tactic with clear grounds, respectfully and with full explanation of why and what’s being done have her full support.

"Crime is not always proportionate, and the causes for disproportionality in stop and search are complex - it is important we understand those causes and scrutinise them to ensure stop and search is not used in a discriminatory manner."

'It's picking on the most vulnerable'

Cllr Taouzzale said before his experience he would have supported stop and search as a tool to tackle London's youth violence problem.

"Beforehand I would have been quite positive about it and said 'if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear'.

"Which is quite a dystopian way of thinking. But that’s how I used to think... But now I realise that even if you have nothing to hide, you still have to fear."

Cllr Taouzzale said he hoped he could help young BAME Londoners and police build a trusting relationship to fight youth crime.

"I’m not saying police are bad, of course not. The police are great, the police do work and do help everyone… but at the end of the day they shouldn’t be picking on people who haven’t done anything wrong."