NYP: ISRAELIS KNOW: PROFILING'S KEY -- NYC's random checks aren't most effective.

New York Post ^ | July 26, 2005 | YISHAI HA'ETZNI

[OESY]

Since 9/11, U.S. officials have struggled with how to protect the American public without infringing on individuals' rights and sensibilities.

The touchiest issue of all is "profiling" — using various factors, including race or ethnicity, in security checks. So, it wasn't surprising that, when New York announced last week that it would begin screening passengers on the city's subway, officials promised loudly and insistently that the checks would be random and racial profiling would not be used.

Such a policy avoids discrimination against certain ethnic groups — in effect, inconveniencing, embarrassing and perhaps even punishing individuals for crimes they did not commit. This is an important value and a worthy goal. Unfortunately, however, blanket avoidance of profiling undermines the entire point of checking passengers.

Following a spate of terrorist hijackings and other attacks on civilian aircraft and airports in the late 1960s and '70s, Israel developed a security system that utilized sociological profiles of those seeking to harm Israelis, among other factors.

The American system developed at the same time relied primarily on technology like scanning devices, which checked people and baggage uniformly.

Facing a less benign threat, Israelis found this system insufficient: Explosives and other weapons could slip through too easily. Since it wasn't feasible to perform extensive security searches on every passenger, Israel used sociological profiles in addition to screening devices: Each passenger is questioned briefly and then airport security personnel use their judgment to identify suspect would-be passengers, who are then questioned at greater length and their bags searched more thoroughly. It is targeted and far more effective than random searches, which end up being nearly cosmetic....

Is profiling worth the resulting infringement on the democratic values of equality? Yes. After all, protecting human life is also a democratic value, perhaps the supreme one....

[Vision]

It's okay, relax. We're multiculturalist, PC morons

Somehow that gives me no comfort

[1234]

The American system's "blindness" cuts off the most important weapon in the war against terrorism: Human capability, judgment and perception...

what about 'the talk' that the "new hires' at baggage inspection level and similar stations, are low on educational achievement scale-some i've encountered just seem plain dumb. i 'always remember' having my shoes, etc. searched, while a young black w/afro who barely spoke English waltzed through: i'm a typical white biz person in appearance....