WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — Some businesses in a trendy, upscale part of Washington, D.C., are being accused of racial profiling after statistics from a shoplifting-reporting app were revealed.

Mobile app “GroupMe” allows store owners and employees to alert each other and authorities if they feel people are acting suspiciously in their place of business, as reported by CBS News.

Georgetown store owners say that shoplifting is a routine part of the cost of doing business in the area.

“The type of people that is more like a shoplifter, they come here all the time, they go to that same item, they get the feel of the store,” Keisha Green, an employee at the Sports Zone Elite, told CBS News.

The heart of Georgetown has seen more than 120 theft reports to police over the last 60 days.

The app aims to help merchants, employees, community leaders and police send each other private messages and pictures regarding suspected shoplifters. However, in a neighborhood that’s nearly 80 percent white with a median household income of almost $120,000, the majority of complaints involve black customers.

“AA female late 20… just stole from Lacoste,” one report from the app reads.

“Need someone ASAP… person walking out…BLK male,” reads another.

Accusations of possible racial profiling were brought to light after Peter Murray, a reporter for the Georgetowner newspaper, looked at the data and said he could “see the racial bias immediately.”

From March 1 to July 5, 72 percent of the 330 people who were identified as “suspicious” in the app were described as African-Americans.

“Not only was there this jump to a conclusion that somebody has committed a crime because they’re suspicious or because they’re wearing a certain thing or they have a certain hair style, but also the people who are texting each other are sort of reveling in this game of following people around and saying who’s suspicious,” Murray told CBS News.

Joe Sternlieb, who runs the Georgetown Improvement District that started the neighborhood’s GroupMe, notes that a small percentage, “maybe less than 5 percent,” of those identified as African-American are actually arrested.

“If somebody posts something that’s inappropriate, the group, actually our staff, goes out and meets with the person, retrains them, makes sure they are comfortable with the rules and can abide by them, and if they don’t, we kick them off,” Sternlieb said, pushing back against the idea that the app enables profiling.

A representative for the app told “CBS This Morning” the company had no comment regarding the story.