In July 2003, then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation of the private policing system Macy's has used to deal with suspected shoplifters. The investigation was prompted by a civil rights lawsuit and an article in "The New York Times", which reported on many of Macy's tactics, including private jails and interrogations. Spitzer's investigation found many of Macy's actions, from ethnic profiling to handcuffing detainees, to be unlawful. In 2005, Macy's settled the civil rights complaint for $600,000 (equivalent to $ in ), claiming to have put the illegal tactics to an end while maintaining the security system itself.