A Brooklyn woman is seeking $65 million in damages in a federal civil rights lawsuit that alleges she was falsely arrested inside the Target store at Kings Plaza and publicly humiliated before being detained for hours at a local precinct.
The complaint, filed October 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, names the city of New York, the New York City Police Department, NYPD officers, Target Corporation and a Target “asset-protection” employee as defendants.
Newsweek contacted the NYPD and the city of New York for comment via email on Friday outside normal office hours.
Why It Matters
The case tests the handoff between private retail security and police in New York, raising questions about how much independent verification officers must do before making an arrest triggered by a store accusation and how far a retailer’s “shopkeeper’s privilege” reasonably extends…