The department also established an early warning system that would flag officers who showed patterns of problematic behavior before it rose to the level of sustained complaints. If an officer had three complaints alleging similar conduct within a year, even if none were sustained, they would be automatically flagged for additional supervision and training.
Whitmore was involved in developing the new training program on implicit bias and racial profiling. He shared his own experience with the body camera footage as a training example. Officers watched a respected sergeant get profiled by one of their own; it was powerful and uncomfortable, which was exactly the point.
The training didn't just show Whitmore's incident. It showed the body camera footage from several of Castellano's previous stops. Officers watched Castellano stop the attorney while jogging. They watched him harass the business owner outside her own store. They watched him make a college student empty his backpack. Then, trainers asked the officers to identify what reasonable suspicion Castellano had in each case. The answer was always the same: none. The only common factor was the race of the person being stopped.
Whitmore also became an advocate for officers of color within the department. He discovered that he wasn't the only Black officer who had experienced discrimination. Several others shared stories of being stopped by fellow officers while off-duty, being questioned about why they were in certain neighborhoods, being assumed to be suspects rather than officers.
Whitmore started a mentoring program pairing experienced officers of color with newer recruits. He worked with command staff to address issues of discrimination and bias within the ranks. He pushed for more diversity in hiring and promotion. The incident had revealed that these problems existed even among those sworn to protect and serve, and Whitmore was determined to change that culture.
Castellano's termination attracted media attention. Local news covered the story of an officer fired for profiling his own sergeant. The story went viral on social media. The body camera footage was released after the investigation concluded, and it was viewed millions of times.
Comment sections filled with people sharing their own experiences of being profiled: Black professionals who had been stopped in their own neighborhoods, Latino business owners questioned in their own stores, Asian Americans followed by security in high-end shops. The story resonated because it showed that profiling happens to everyone, regardless of education, profession, or status. Even a decorated police sergeant wasn't immune to being treated as suspicious simply for being Black in a white neighborhood.
Castellano gave one interview after his termination. He said he felt he had been treated unfairly, that he had been responding to a call and doing his job. When asked if he understood why Whitmore had been offended, Castellano gave a halting answer that suggested he still didn't fully grasp the problem. He never apologized to Whitmore, not privately, not publicly.
He moved out of state six months later and took a job in construction. His wife filed for divorce, citing the stress of the termination and her husband's inability to take responsibility for his actions.