Justification of Racial Profiling

In recent years, racial profiling has become the subject of much controversy in the United States. This law enforcement tactic has come under so much scrutiny because many feel that it specifically targets minorities and violates our civil rights. However, when race is combined with other key identifying characteristics of criminal involvement, profiling is a sensible and useful technique in which police employ the laws of probability to make the best use of their scarce resources in attacking crime. As a result of the huge public outcry against this practice, many laws have been and are in the process of being enacted to make profiling illegal. In turn, this makes law enforcement’s job of protecting society from criminals, such as drug dealers, and in light of recent events, terrorists more complicated and near impossible.
Profiling is a well-known and long standing tool used by law enforcement to attempt to identify individuals involved in criminal activity. It is base...