Macy's Agrees To Pay $650K To Settle Racial Profiling Allegations

(RTTNews) - Macy's, Inc. (M) said Wednesday that it has reached resolution with the New York State Office of the Attorney General related to allegations of racial profiling in its stores in New York. It also has settled in principle various lawsuits related to these allegations.

In addition, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced an agreement with Macy's Retail Holdings Inc., addressing more than a dozen recent complaints of profiling and false detentions at Macy's flagship store in Manhattan's Herald Square. The agreement will help ensure that all customers, regardless of their race or ethnicity, are treated equally at the retail giant's 42 New York State stores. Macy's has agreed to pay $650,000 in costs, fees, and penalties to New York State.

As per the terms of the agreement, Macy's will designate an independent expert on anti-discrimination laws and prevention of racial profiling in retail loss prevention who will report to the Attorney General's Office on compliance by Macy's with the agreement for three years.

"To be clear, our company's policies strictly prohibit any form of discrimination or racial profiling and any occurrence of such behavior will not be tolerated in our organization," the company said in a statement.

Moving forward, the company said that it will be initiating a series of measures including enhanced training and education for its loss prevention and sales associates. It also will be adopting an expanded role for its security monitor to help ensure that it has the right policies and procedures in place, and that it is constantly reviewing its compliance with them.

The Attorney General's Office said that the Civil Rights Bureau opened an investigation into Macy's in February 2013, when it received several complaints regarding minority customers. The office has received complaints from close to two dozen African-American, Latino and other customers who are members of ethnic minority groups who claimed that they had been apprehended and detained at Macy's, despite not having stolen or having attempted to steal any Macy's merchandise.

The consumers alleged they were racially profiled; that officials at the store, located at 151 West 34th Street, detained and falsely accused minorities at far greater rates than white customers of committing crimes, and that Macy's was engaging in improper apprehensions and detentions.

The complaints alleged that minority customers were wrongly stopped and detained by loss prevention employees of the store after traveling between floors by escalator with unconcealed merchandise, despite having no intention of shoplifting, and that customers with limited English proficiency suspected of shoplifting or credit card fraud were not permitted to make phone calls, were denied access to an interpreter, and were required to sign trespass notices even though they could not understand the notices in English.

In January 2005, Macy's entered into a consent decree with the Attorney General's Office to resolve allegations that its asset protection policies and practices, including its handcuffing policies, violated various anti-discrimination laws. The terms of that agreement ended in 2008. Despite improvements in some areas and the continuation of certain consent decree reforms, the Attorney General's investigation found that Macy's was continuing to stop and detain a higher percentage of its minority shoppers than non-minority shoppers.

As a result of the current investigation, the Attorney General concluded that Macy's has failed to take appropriate steps to adequately and quickly address profiling issues at its New York stores, that Macy's failed to provide loss prevention employees with sufficient guidance or training on when to make proper detentions, and that Macy's lacked comprehensive data collection and recordkeeping on its employees' interactions with customers suspected of theft or credit card fraud.