WASHINGTON — A crime-fighting app that’s stirred controversy in Georgetown is being taken offline.
The app called GroupMe has been used to help retailers battle shoplifting, but critics say it’s encouraged racial profiling.
Georgetown Business Improvement District CEO Joe Sternlieb sent out a letter Sunday night saying the district is taking the app down in the midst of “legitimate concerns” about its “potential to wrongfully identify shoppers as shoplifters.”
The group says its staff is now going to do a “top to bottom” review of its public safety program and efforts to work with police to fight crime.
Here’s the text of the letter Sternlieb sent:
“Georgetown is one of the most diverse retail districts in the region, and its merchants work hard every day to welcome visitors — regardless of race, ethnicity or income.
“Over the last several days Georgetown has received a great deal of attention stemming from a news story that evaluated the use of a smartphone app called GroupMe that the BID, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and retail merchant community launched as a pilot in 2014. The intent was to provide real-time communication as part of a public safety partnership to reduce shoplifting.
“While the app has been effective in deterring shoplifting, the news stories and the dialogue that followed have brought up legitimate concerns about the use of the app and its potential to wrongfully identify shoppers as shoplifters. The overriding goal of our retail community is to ensure that everyone who visits Georgetown feels welcomed, comfortable, safe, and that their civil rights and individual dignity are protected and respected. So long as there are questions about how this app is being used, this goal cannot be met.
“The BID’s Executive Committee and staff have decided to take the app off-line in order to do a top to bottom review of the public safety communication program associated with it. Our mission going forward will be to develop a new set of rules and protocols for use of real-time communication tools that may help us meet our mission; to develop a robust anti-racial-profiling training program that would be required to be completed before anyone gets access to a future version of such a tool; and an analysis of the appropriate size and membership criteria of the group. Only after this work has been completed, and we can determine that a tool like the GroupMe app can be deployed to effectively meet the highest standards of professionalism and protection of all Georgetown’s customers, will we revisit putting it back on line. “
