There are mounting concerns that African and Muslim communities in Australia's biggest cities are being targeted by over-zealous police.

Melbourne lawyer Tamar Hopkins says police themselves may be the ones breaking the law by racial profiling in their street patrols of ethnically diverse communities.

She is calling for the introduction of stop-and-search receipts to hold police officers to account.

And the issue does not seem to be confined to Victoria, with Sydney lawyer Adam Houda accusing some police of being "out of control", "zealots", and a "bunch of amateurs".

Police in Melbourne are stopping and searching young men of African background, sometimes several times a day.

Ms Hopkins, from the Flemington and Kensington Legal Centre in Melbourne's inner-west, has handled about 200 complaints of police brutality.

"It's almost like there's a culture of denial going on here so policy makers, politicians and police deny that there is a problem," she said.

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"The efforts being done by Victoria Police are to reform the behaviour of young people.

"There are going to be new young people every year, we can't ask for reform to the public's behaviour.

"We need to look at what is it that is happening within Victoria Police that is leading to these claims of racism and racial profiling."

Ms Hopkins says police themselves may be breaking the law.

"If you have a police officer treating people differently because of their skin colour, they are engaging in racial discrimination and that is unlawful under the Federal Race Discrimination Act," she said.

Last week, Victoria Police released crime statistics showing that Somali and Sudanese youths were over-represented in criminal offences relating to assault and theft.

While community leaders acknowledge there is a problem, Ms Hopkins says younger African men are now changing their behaviour to avoid police attention.

"People who I've spoken to say that the police will stop us if we're in groups of more than two," she said.

"So they split up when they're going out in public, which is just extraordinary.

"Others have told me that this young man said he goes running, but when a police car goes past, he stops because he knows that if the police see him running, they're going to suspect him of a crime.

"There's this sort of an awareness that the police are going to be wondering if they are carrying a bag or carrying a knife and people have told me that they sort of drop their hands and show their palms so that no-one would think that they're carrying anything."

Police response

Police deny they are focusing on particular racial groups.

Victoria Police has issued a statement saying there is "little evidence to suggest police use their search powers to target particular groups".

Police work within strict internal policies which regulate stop and search powers. Police can search people for weapons without a warrant and without any reasonable suspicion or belief and these operations can be planned or unplanned. The location of these operations is based on intelligence and there must be an identified risk. There is little evidence to suggest police are using stop and search powers arbitrarily or targeting particular groups.

Fitting the profile

Mr Houda, a prominent criminal lawyer in Sydney, says the problem is not isolated to Melbourne.

"I've had a lot of people come into my office and seek representation in relation to police approaching them for no particular reason at all, and when they asked officers why they approached them, the officers would say 'you've been targeted because you fit the profile of young people that potentially could start committing criminal offences'," he said.

Mr Houda has been arrested half a dozen times himself and has already changed his behaviour

"I've been picked up five times for walking down my street," he said.

"What I do differently is I don't walk down the street anymore, because on the last two occasions when I was reaching for my phone so I can start recording the exchanges, the police officer went for his Taser gun.

"So things can be misconstrued, it's dark out there."

'Bunch of amateurs'

Mr Houda says the Muslim community's relationship with police is in tatters

"I spoke to a very, very senior police officer who told me many years ago, they couldn't get recruits out at Bankstown, but post-September 11, all the recruits wanted to start going to Bankstown," he said.

"So you've got people who think they're out there doing God's work - zealots, if I can sum them up in a word.

"From my experience, police officers, a lot of them out at Bankstown are just completely out of control.

"They're quick to issue press releases that they've come across a wall of silence with the community in investigating crimes, but you know what, it's entirely their fault in the way they deal. But, members of the community in the Canterbury-Bankstown region don't trust police."

Mr Houda is calling for an overhaul of police training.

"I get to see police officers in court on a day-to-day basis," he said.

"I get an opportunity to cross-examine them about their knowledge of the law and I can tell you that most police that I come across are a bunch of amateurs.

"I mean, don't take it from me. Across the road here is the Downing Centre which comprises dozens of courts.

"You can go sit in there and watch on a daily basis police officers being cross-examined. A lot of the times it's just quite embarrassing that their level of competence."

Receipt system

In Melbourne, Ms Hopkins is calling on police to implement a stop and search receipt system which would force police to account for why they were searching people

"This is a proposal that has been up and running in the UK since 2004 in response to a major inquiry that recognised systemic racism within the Metropolitan Police in the UK," she said.

"What it has shown in the UK is that data has begun to be collected, because every time one of these stops and searches is issued, what's also noted is the race of the person who's been stopped and they have clearly shown that if you're black, you're six times more likely to be stopped on the street than if you're white.

"I think it's one that we should really look at introducing here in Victoria and in fact Australia-wide."

Victoria Police says it is not currently reviewing stop and search procedures.

NSW Police are yet to comment.