Dive Brief:

• Barneys New York will pay $525,000 and make changes to its policies with the help of an independent anti-profiling expert, in an agreement with New York state over a profiling case brought by state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

• The agreement came at the conclusion of a nine-month investigation, in which Schneiderman said his office found that a “disproportionate number of African-American and Latino customers being detained for alleged shoplifting or credit card fraud.”

• The investigation was launched after complaints by two Barneys patrons, who filed lawsuits after being chased down and detained for stealing expensive items even though they had legitimately shopped and paid for them.

Dive Insight:

The high-profile “shop and frisk” cases at Barneys that launched this investigation in New York spurred many other stories from patrons of several other retailers around the country. Shoplifting is a major problem for retailers, but accusing innocent people of the crime is hardly good for business. That becomes especially worrisome (not to mention, illegal) when poor staff training and inadequate company policies result in racial profiling.