By Christine McCarthy BBC News Online

Mother-of-four Janet Bishop tells how she feels little has changed in 10 years, when she says her only black son was singled out for police questioning on a regular basis.

As someone who gave lessons in equal opportunities, Janet Bishop was well aware of the problems her adopted black son might come across in life.

But even she was amazed to find her son singled out as a potential troublemaker by police, who she said stopped and searched him "innumerable times".

Mrs Bishop, who now lives in north Yorkshire and has grown-up children, says she is appalled that nothing seems to have changed since their experiences in the early 1980s.

Problems

"When all our children were young, none of our white children were ever stopped by the police, but our black son was stopped innumerable times," she said.

The Bishops lived in an affluent district of Cambridge, having moved into the city from a small village in the county.

They had adopted their youngest son, who was nine when they moved to the city. She has asked that we do not name him.

Other white friends of his were never stopped, he was the one pinpointed

Janet Bishop

"In the village he was the only black person - East Anglia is a predominantly white area - yet even in Cambridge itself, although he was not alone in being black all his friends were white."

The problems began as her son entered his teens, she said.

"He used to be stopped for little things, like riding his skateboard and was told by police he shouldn't be doing it - when he wasn't doing anything wrong.

"Later he was stopped and searched on numerous occasions. Yet other white friends of his were never stopped, he was the one pinpointed.

"When he was asked where he lived the police did not believe he lived in the middle class area where our house was situated," she added.

Things came to a head when her son, then aged in his early 20s, was stopped while putting his bike away in the shed by his house.

Stopped

Mrs Bishop said two police officers stopped her son, who was coming home after a few drinks in the early hours of the morning.

"A police car had stopped him from across the road and as he started pushing the bike towards the house they stopped him.

"He said they suspected him of trying to rob the house and when he said he lived there they did not believe him."

He asked for the officers' numbers but they refused, said Mrs Bishop.

"We were woken up by the shouting," she said.

The incident resulted in the Bishops making a complaint to police. This was taken up and a senior officer visited their home.

It made him feel very distrustful of police and quite angry

Janet Bishop

"We were sent a letter saying the officers had been reprimanded for not giving their numbers and the force would review its procedures for racist training.

"But the letter said my son was not stopped because he was black."

Mrs Bishop said the incident had left the family on a low, her son in particular.

Changes

"After that incident, he told us more things that he'd kept back about being stopped and searched by other police officers. He hadn't said anything because he was afraid he would be picked on.

"It made him feel very distrustful of police and quite angry."

You don't want this kind of thing to happen to your own child - you don't want the police to be racist

Janet Bishop

Mrs Bishop said two of her other children lived in London and the fourth in Reading yet none of them had ever been stopped by police in the same way as her black son.

Now grown up and never having been in any trouble with the police, her youngest son still lives in East Anglia.

Mrs Bishop said she wants to see better training for police and their relationship with ethnic minorities.

"It's been over a decade since my son was young and there have been a lot of changes in that time, yet still the statistics are saying more black men are being stopped.

"You don't want this kind of thing to happen to your own child - you don't want the police to be racist."