Anyone who has travelled abroad this summer will know that during the heightened security there were checks that were indiscriminate and resulted in long delays, I travelled a number of times through Birmingham BHX and was subjected, along with others, to thorough searches.
On one occasion I witnessed a couple, both in wheelchairs and of around 70 or 80 years of age, being searched and asked to remove their shoes, a task that appeared very difficult to the gentleman in particular.
Throughout this time, and at great inconvenience to travellers, our politically correct police force refused to consider profiling travellers at airports and made statements to this effect. Whilst one can accept that there are examples of white and black converts to islam it is absurd to imagine that an elderly couple in wheelchairs are likely to be suicide bombers.
I found these police statements to be strange given that they already profile people in other walks of life, I was stopped en route to Spain during June, before the security level was raised, and asked if I was planning to travel on to Germany for the World Cup. I asked why I was being asked such a question and was told that I fitted the profile of someone who may travel to Germany, I am 30ish and white with short hair. There were some 15 police officers waiting by security, no doubt all earning overtime, looking for anyone who fitted the 'profile'.
I was allowed to carry on my business after 10 minutes of having my identity checked before they allowed me to pass through.
I thought this might be a one off example of the double standards the police appeared to be demonstrating, I was wrong.
Yesterday at around 6pm I travelled to Shrewsbury from Ludlow and was surprised to see a metal detector at the bottom of one side of the stairs, manned by 6 police, there was a football match in town against Walsall, for the record I planned to attend the game later on, after meeting a friend for a meal.
Once again I was asked to queue and pass through the airport style metal detector and empty my pockets, I noticed that not all passengers were being asked to pass this side and questioned why I had been selected.
I was sober, I am actually teetotal, I was travelling alone, why was I selected for the check?. I was once again told by the police that I fitted the profile of people they were looking to search.
I asked the pc once again if I had been profiled, he replied that I "fitted the profile" so on two separate occasions, and by two separate police forces I have been searched on the basis of my appearance, age and skin colour.
On the face of it I would have no issue with this providing the police were equally selective about profiling other ethnic groups but this is not the case as our police are now so politically correct and scared of being branded racist that they are actually discriminating racially against the indigenous population.
Profiling is alive and well if you are white and British.

Strange you should be asking these questions DonJames. Seems to be similar questions on my thread

My apologies if the threads double up but by the time I joined the other thread the debate had moved on somewhat to a more general discussion on immigration.
This posting has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration and is purely about police attitudes to profiling suspects.

I think the only problem would be that as soon as the terrorists realised what the profile was, they would use bombers not fitting the profile. Football hooligans aren't going to get other people to do the fighting etc for them though because they do it for enjoyment not a political end.