ALBANY — The state attorney general has launched a probe into Barneys and Macy’s after four complaints about alleged racial profiling at the New York City shopping havens surfaced in the past week, the Daily News has learned. 
 
 Eric Schneiderman’s office on Monday sent letters to both retailers seeking an array of information on their policies for stopping, detaining and questioning customers based on race. 
 
 They have until Friday to comply, according to the letters obtained by The News. 
 
 Barneys CEO Mark Lee received a letter from the New York attorney general's office demanding information on the store's policies for stopping, detaining and questioning customers based on race. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg) 
 
 “Attorney General Schneiderman is committed to ensuring that all New York residents are afforded equal protection under the law,” Kristen Clarke, who heads the AG’s civil rights bureau, wrote to Barneys CEO Mark Lee and Macy’s Chief Stores Officer Peter Sachse. 
 
 “The alleged repeated behavior of your employees raises troubling questions about your company’s commitment to that ideal,” Clarke told both. 
 
 The Rev. Al Sharpton has threatened a boycott of Barneys unless it takes action to change its policies. (Christie M. Farriella for New York Daily News) 
 
 Clarke wrote in the letter to Sachse that Macy’s alleged actions are even more egregious because it has been accused of profiling black customers in the past. 
 
 In 2005, the state attorney general’s office, then under Eliot Spitzer, filed a federal lawsuit against Macy’s that claimed racial discrimination of black and Hispanic customers. 
 
 Kirsten John Foy, president of the Brooklyn chapter of the National Action Network, where Barneys CEO Mark Lee will meet Tuesday with the Rev. Al Sharpton. (Jesse Ward for New York Daily News) 
 
 Macy’s at the time denied any wrongdoing, but the suit was resolved after the company agreed to pay $600,000 in damages, create a position of security monitor, develop regulations on handcuffing, and keep a database of records of all detentions. 
 
 “Given this prior settlement agreement, these new allegations are particularly troublesome,” Clarke’s letter says. 
 
 Barneys' flagship store in midtown Manhattan, scenes of the alleged racial profiling. (Christie M Farriella for New York Daily News) 
 
 In addition to the two most recent cases of alleged profiling at Macy’s over the past week, Clarke wrote that Schneiderman’s office had received “a number of similar complaints.” 
 
 In her letter to Barneys, she cited news reports that two black customers may have been falsely accused of committing credit card fraud. She said the reports and “additional information” that her office reviewed “suggest that Barneys may be engaging in a potential pattern of unlawful racial profiling of customers.” 
 
 Macy's Herald Square, where two shoppers have claimed they were wrongly handcuffed and questioned after purchasing high-end clothing and accessories. (Stephen Chernin/Getty Images) 
 
 Clarke warned in her letters that the stores may be in violation of state and local civil rights law prohibiting “racial discrimination in places of public accommodation.” 
 
 A Macy’s spokeswoman, Elina Kazan, said she was unaware of the letter and had no immediate comment. Barneys did not immediately respond for comment. 
 
 The first page of a letter from the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to Macy's on the purported racial profiling of customers. 
 
 The attorney general’s office refused comment on the probe. 
 
 The “shopping while black” complaints have sparked an outcry, leading the Rev. Al Sharpton to threaten a boycott of Barneys unless it takes action to address the issue. Lee is slated to meet with Sharpton Tuesday morning at the National Action Network in Harlem. They will be joined by Kirsten John Foy, president of NAN’s Brooklyn chapter. 
 
 Page 2 of the state attorney general's letter to Macy's. 
 
 The allegations have also stirred up criticism of Jay Z, the Brooklyn-born rapper who’s partnering with Barneys for a holiday sale of luxury merchandise that debuts Nov. 20. An online petition has garnered more than 16,000 signatures calling for the rap mogul to pull out of the deal. 
 
 Schneiderman’s office has ordered Macy’s and Barneys to turn over the total number of stops and detention of customers between Oct. 15, 2012, and Oct. 15, 2013, sorted by race and national origin, and all documents pertaining to those incidents. 
 
 Page 1 of the letter that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office sent to Barney's seeking more information related to the alleged profiling of shoppers. 
 
 In addition, the office is seeking all complaints of customer discrimination received in the past year, as well as the anti-discrimination policies in place as of Oct. 1, employee training on those policies and copies of all contracts with private companies that provide store security. Clarke gave both stores until Oct. 30 to contact the AG’s office to set up face-to-face meetings on the matter. 
 
 The News on Monday reported that Art Palmer, 56, filed a grievance with the Civilian Complaint Review Board after he said he was surrounded by NYPD cops outside Macy’s Herald Square store after making a legitimate purchase of shirts and ties on April 24. 
 
 The second page of the New York attorney general's letter to Barneys. 
 
 Last week, Rob Brown, a 29-year-old actor in the HBO show “Treme,” said he was handcuffed and detained for an hour on June 8 after being falsely accused of using a stolen credit card to buy his mother a $1,350 watch at Macy’s. 
 
 Trayon Christian, 19, sued Barneys after he said he was detained by cops for using his debit card to buy a $349 Salvatore Ferragamo belt at the store in April. 
 
 And Kayla Phillips, 21, said she was stopped by undercover police and accused of credit card fraud after she bought a $2,500 designer bag at Barneys on Feb. 28. 
 
 None of the four was charged. 
 
 Meanwhile, state Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) on Monday called for investigations by the U.S. attorney’s office as well as by the city and state human rights offices. He said he had just learned that a Hispanic shopper was allegedly detained on suspicion of shoplifting after trying to return a coat legitimately purchased with cash at Macy’s 34th St. flagship store in 2009. 
 
 Brooklyn pastor Clint Miller will lead a picket of Barneys midtown store on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 With Ben Chapman 
 
 * * * 
 
 State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is seeking the following information from Barneys and Macy’s: 
 
 1) The total number of stops and detentions of customers by race or national origin between Oct. 15,2012 and Oct. 15, 2013. 
 
 2) All documents pertaining to stops and detentions. 
 
 3) Customer discrimination complaints received within the last year. 
 
 4) Store policies pertaining the stopping, detaining and questioning of customers. 
 
 5) Policies and procedures for contacting law enforcement regarding its customers. 
 
 6) Copies of contracts or agreements with private security firms, law enforcement agencies or other entities that provide store security. 
 
 7) Training materials for store personnel. 
 
 8) Anti-discrimination policies in effect as of Oct. 1, 2013. 
 
 9) A copy of Macy’s “Trespass Notice.” 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Barneys New York Chief Executive Mark Lee speaks to the media next to Reverend Al Sharpton (2nd R) during a news conference in New York October 29, 2013. 
 
 NEW YORK New York police and retailers Macy's Inc and Barneys New York Inc traded blame on Tuesday over complaints by black customers who were stopped by police after making luxury purchases, in a case that has roiled civil rights leaders. 
 
 The state's attorney general launched an investigation into security practices at the two department stores after four customers complained they were unfairly targeted in a series of cases the city's feisty tabloids have nicknamed "shop and frisk," a play on a controversial policing tactic. 
 
 Barneys and Macy's officials said that police acted on their own, without input from store staff in choosing to stop shoppers who included a black actor with a role on a HBO series. 
 
 Following a meeting in Harlem with New York civil rights leader Al Sharpton, Barneys Chief Executive Officer Mark Lee likewise said his employees had no part in two incidents at his stores. 
 
 "We believe that no Barneys employees were involved in those incidents," Lee said. "No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities." 
 
 Likewise, a Macy's spokeswoman denied that store staff had any role in two incidents at the company's Herald Square flagship. In one of those incidents, actor Rob Brown of HBO's "Treme" in June was paraded through the store in handcuffs after purchasing a $1,350 gold Movado watch for his mother, according to the Daily News. 
 
 "This was an operation of the New York City Police Department," Macy's spokeswoman Elina Kazan said in a statement. 
 
 NYPD chief spokesman John McCarthy countered those claims, saying that in both Barneys' incidents and the case involving Brown at Macy's, officers were acting on information provided by store security. 
 
 "In both instances, the NYPD were conducting unrelated investigations" in the store, McCarthy said. 
 
 Another Macy's incident, in which a 56-year-old exercise trainer named Art Palmer was surrounded by police after he used his credit card to buy $320 worth of shirts and ties, is still under investigation, McCarthy said. 
 
 'TROUBLING QUESTIONS' 
 
 State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gave the two department store chains until Friday to turn over information about their policies for detaining and questioning customers based on race. 
 
 "The alleged repeated behavior of your employees raises troubling questions about your company's commitment to that ideal," Kristen Clarke, who heads the attorney general's civil rights bureau, wrote in letters to Barneys' Lee and Macy's Chief Stores Officer Peter Sachse released on Tuesday. 
 
 After meeting with Lee on Tuesday, Sharpton and other leaders on Tuesday called for a summit with a "broad section" of city retail executives. 
 
 "This must be done immediately," Sharpton said. "Not weeks - days, hours. There needs to be a meeting." 
 
 Barneys and the New York City Police Department were named in a lawsuit filed by Trayon Christian of Queens last week. The lawsuit said police had detained him in April for two hours after he bought a $349 Ferragamo belt, and they then released him without charging him. 
 
 Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing school student, said she was surrounded by four undercover police officers in February after leaving Barneys with a $2,500 Celine handbag she had purchased. 
 
 New York's Civilian Complaint Review Board is investigating allegations of improper police stops of Palmer and Phillips, spokeswoman Linda Sachs said on Tuesday. Macy's has not yet responded to Palmer's allegation. 
 
 In 2005, Macy's paid $600,000 to settle similar allegations that many of the chain's New York stores had targeted blacks and Latinos for particular scrutiny of theft, according to the New York Attorney General's office. 
 
 Crime statistics from the New York Police Department show grand larceny has risen 31.6 percent over the past two years in the Midtown North precinct, which includes Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, and is up nearly 4 percent in the Upper East Side's 19th precinct, which includes Barneys New York. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)
– Macy's and Barneys must provide New York state's attorney general with their polices about questioning and detaining black customers, reports the Daily News. AG Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation after receiving four complaints from black shoppers who said they got harassed for the sin of buying luxury items. (One recent high-profile case involved a teen who got handcuffed by police after buying a pricey belt at Barneys.) The stores have until Friday to comply. "The alleged repeated behavior of your employees raises troubling questions about your company's commitment to that ideal," wrote Kristen Clarke of the attorney general's civil rights bureau, referring to equal protection under the law. Barneys CEO Mark Lee, meanwhile, met with Al Sharpton today and suggested that police were the ones guilty of over-reacting in the recent incidents, not his employees, reports Reuters. "No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities," he said. New York's tabloids have dubbed the controversy "shop and frisk."