The retailer Macy’s has agreed to pay US$650,000 to settle allegations of racial profiling at its flagship store in Manhattan’s Herald Square.
Under the agreement signed on Tuesday with New York’s attorney general, the company is to adopt new policies on police access to its security camera monitors and against profiling, further train employees, investigate customer complaints, keep better records of detentions and report for three years on its compliance.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the settlement should help ensure customers are treated equally regardless of race or ethnicity at the retail giant’s 42 department stores in New York state.
Photo: AFP
“It is absolutely unacceptable — and it’s illegal — for anyone in New York to be treated like a criminal simply because of the color of their skin,” Schneiderman said.
The attorney general’s Civil Rights Bureau said it opened an investigation into Macy’s in February last year when it received several complaints from minority customers. Since then, the office recorded complaints from 18 African-American, Latino and other ethnic minority customers who claimed they had been apprehended and detained at Macy’s stores between 2007 and last year, despite not having stolen or attempted to steal any merchandise.
The agreement cites Macy’s data from October 2012 through October last year showing employees apprehended and detained 1,947 individuals at the Herald Square store. Meanwhile, about 6,000 people were detained at stores statewide.
The agreement requires publicly posting Macy’s “customer’s bill of rights” in English and Spanish in all its New York stores and on the Macy’s Inc Web site.
“Moving forward, our company will be initiating a series of measures including enhanced training and education for our loss prevention and sales associates. We also will be adopting an expanded role for our security monitor to help ensure that we have the right policies and procedures in place, and that we are constantly reviewing our compliance with them,” Macy’s said in a statement.
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