The New York City Police Department’s “Stop and Frisk” policy only came into the national spotlight in 2013 after a judge ruled it unconstitutional for using racial profiling techniques. Yet, Adhyl Polanco, a Dominican man and eight-year N.Y.P.D. veteran, has been living in its spotlight since he decided to reveal the truth on the issue several years ago.

Polanco, who came from the Dominican Republic and grew up in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, dreamt of being a police officer since childhood. He joined the force in 2005 but became disenchanted when he was asked to meet quotas for stops or face consequences such as poor evaluations or lack of time off. This type of pressure as well as his own experiences — as a cop he and several colleagues were stopped for “walking while brown” down a Washington Heights street — signaled a deeper problem for Polanco. But he decided to speak out after his commanding officer forced him to stop a Latino teen walking home from school for no reason. “This is not what I became a cop for,” he recalled during an interview.

The former high school administrator, sports coach and father of three swiftly took action. He made audio recordings of his morning roll call meetings, which captured officers mandating “20 summonses, one arrest and five stops” per month. After filing a complaint with the department that was ignored, Polanco was suspended for several years. He took his story to the media and the Village Voice ran a series of articles based on Polanco’s recordings.

His biggest issue with the policy is its general idea of who is a criminal. “You cannot treat the whole Black and Latino community as if they are all about to commit a crime,” Polanco says. It was why he decided to be a part of and testify in a class-action lawsuit that brought about the court’s ruling in August. Although the judge’s decision against the policy was recently appealed, and allows cops to continue with the practice, Polanco continues to speak out and bring attention to the issue. His own moral compass and conscious would not allow him to do otherwise. “They teach us to lie about stopping people. They teach us to lie about tickets, and ruin lives,” Polanco told a New York Times reporter. “I’ve never been a disciplinary problem. The only problem came when I decided to open my mouth.”

For everyone’s sake we hope that he continues doing just that.