Ethnic profiling not much cop

Ethnic profiling tarnishes the EU’s reputation, argues James A Goldston in the Guardian. In the aftermath of 9/11 and bombings in Madrid and London, law-enforcement authorities across Europe launched surveillance of mosques, and also stop and search controls of people who appeared to be Muslim. However, the inefficiency of this form of policing has been demonstrated with the recent release ofUK government figures showing that over 117,000 police stops made between 2007 and 2008, yielded only 72 arrests for terrorism-related offences. Other studies in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and US have concluded that ethnic profiling “wastes time and resources.” A report by the Open Society Justice Initiative shows that in targeting ethnic minorities, police alienate “the very people on whom they depend for co-operation and intelligence.”