Barneys Puts NYPD Under Surveillance
Store security at Barneys New York is now trained on the NYPD.
The retailer released a memo to employees last week detailing new security policies that include videotaping cops whenever they enter the store’s control room and keeping a log of detectives’ visits.
The memo, obtained by the Daily News, stipulates that cops can only access the control room — where employees watch store monitors — when they need to continue surveillance of an individual who entered the Madison Ave. location from the street.
Cops who don’t comply will be asked to leave, the memo said.
NYPD officers need to provide “reasonable description of the individual or individuals that they wish to place under surveillance and the reason,” the memo stated.
The new policies were issued when civil rights leaders pressed Barneys and other well-known retailers to clarify their relationship with the NYPD after two black shoppers came forward in October to say they were racially profiled at the store, said the Daily News.
Barneys has blamed the incidents on undercover cops in the control room at the time. The NYPD said employees conferred with detectives in both cases.
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