News outlets have reported about the smart phone app, GroupMe, which was used to communicate possible suspicious behavior within Georgetown’s retail establishments by the Georgetown Business Improvement District as part of its own online group. Questions arouse about the possibility of racial profiling or bias by users, which a few GroupMe texts displayed.
The Georgetowner Newspaper was the first news outlet to report on this concern in its Aug. 8 issue.
Later, because of additional press inquiries and its own review, the Georgetown BID called a timeout on its GroupMe app and is looking over its communication process and rules for this app. No time was given for resumption of the public safety app.
The following is a message from Georgetown Business Improvement District CEO Joe Sternlieb, dated Oct.18, reproduced in its entirety and without any alterations:
“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.”
