Racial profiling is, at its core, a racist policy that allows the targeting of specific racial and ethnic groups for the purpose of greater and unequal governmental scrutiny – with no legal or constitutional justification. The end result is that in jurisdictions in which racial profiling is in effect, the members of the profiled communities live under the constant threat of random and unprovoked harassment at the hands of the police. From the police point of view, profiling makes sense: it allows them to place special attention on the population of people statistically most likely to commit crimes. Opponents of profiling make a very clear argument against profiling on the basis that it is nothing more than a segregation list, racist, and prejudiced policy that serves no real or legitimate purpose in the effort to fight crime. It is the purpose of this paper to explore both arguments, and to support the conclusion that racial profiling is an ineffective method of fighting crime and terrorism and that it should not be used.
