Justin Serrano was 13 the first time he was stopped by police. He says he was walking his 7-year-old brother home from school when police forced him against a wall, patted him down and kept him in the back of a patrol car for more than an hour while both boys cried. Then they let Serrano go, telling him it was a case of mistaken identity.

It was a pivotal moment in Serrano's life. Five years later, he sat with other Hispanic and black teenagers with similar stories at Make the Road, a community organization in a Brooklyn neighborhood of taco trucks, coconut ice cream vendors, and Puerto Rican flags peeking from grimy windows. Guided by two university professors, the teenagers were contributing questions for a survey on the New York City Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" tactic.

The NYPD's policy of detaining and sometimes searching anyone officers deemed suspicious has prompted an emotional debate and a federal lawsuit.