The Macy”™s corporation has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims of racial profiling and false detentions of shoppers at the retailer”™s flagship Herald Square department store.
The agreement with Macy”™s Retail Holdings Inc. was announced Wednesday by state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. His office”™s civil rights bureau launched an investigation early last year after nearly two dozen African-American, Latino and other minority customers claimed they had been stopped and detained by Macy”™s loss prevention employees in the West 34th Street store despite not having stolen or attempted to steal merchandise.
In interviews with minority customers and Macy”™s sales employees and reviewing data provided by Macy”™s, investigators found that minority customers were tracked and detained for suspected shoplifting much more frequently than white customers, according to Schneiderman. Foreign-language speakers suspected of shoplifting or credit card fraud were denied phone calls and access to an interpreter, and were required to sign trespass notices written in English.
Under terms of the settlement, Macy”™s agreed to designate an independent expert on anti-discrimination laws and racial profiling in retail loss prevention who will report to the attorney general”™s office on compliance by the retail giant for three years, and to hire an internal security monitor of loss prevention policies and practices and settlement compliance. The company will post a customers”™ bill of rights in English and Spanish in all 42 of its stores in New York and on its website, and train employees and adopt new policies regarding anti-profiling and loss prevention practices and record keeping.
Macy”™s operates three Westchester County department stores, in Yonkers, White Plains and Yorktown Heights.
The Macy”™s agreement is the second reached this month by the attorney general”™s office with a prominent Manhattan retailer accused of racial profiling. Barneys New York recently agreed to pay $525,000 and retain an anti-profiling consultant in a similar settlement.
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