Does Fear of Profiling Cause Reverse Profiling?

Good intentions to avoid profiling or fear of being accused of profiling can result in reverse profiling with devastating effects.

Consider this about Nigerian Delta Airlines bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab:

• Abdulmutallab was denied a visa by the UK in May 2009.
• The CIA had intelligence that an unknown Nigerian was in Yemen being prepared for a terrorist assault.
• Approximately 1 month before his flight, when Alhaji Umar Mutallab, Abdulmutallab’s father, became concerned about his son’s involvement with radical Islam, he contacted the US Embassy, met with the CIA and informed the CIA that his son had been to Yemen.
• The CIA had Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab placed on the US terrorist database, with information of his possible extremist connections in Yemen.
• The CIA forwarded information about him to the National Counterterrorism Center.
• When he purchased a ticket to the US on Delta Airlines, he 1) paid $2,831 cash for a round-trip ticket from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit via Amsterdam; 2) traveled alone; and 3) had only a small carry-on bag, without luggage stored below.

While alarm bells should have gone off when he purchased a ticket to travel to the US, there was a deafening silence.  Profiling passengers can be initiated at three possible time intervals, prior to purchasing an airline ticket; after purchasing an airline ticket; and upon arrival at the airport.  Profiling could have consisted of racial, religious, demographic information; other information such as already collected intelligence regarding his activities; and observed behavior at the airport.

Apparently, no profiling of any sort was conducted and the result is that he allegedly carried onboard the Delta Airlines flight as much as 80g of PETN, enough explosive to cause substantial damage and possibly bring down the aircraft causing the deaths of everyone on board.  While no constructive profiling was conducted in this attempted bombing of an airplane, I have personally been subjected to reverse profiling.

What is reverse profiling and why does it waste security resources? Several years ago during the President Bush years, I flew on JetBlue from New York to Los Angeles, drove to San Diego, flew back to New York and then flew to Florida and back. On each segment of my flight, I was selected for extra screening.

I did fit some rudimentary profiling because I was traveling alone and flew back from a different airport. However, after complaining I was told by a JetBlue employee that I was selected for extra screening because I am a law enforcement officer. I remembered that on that first flight to Los Angeles, the JetBlue employee at the ticket counter saw my Auxiliary Police ID when I was asked for my driver’s license and this information ended up in the computer. Apparently there was a policy of profiling law enforcement officers. I’m not sure why, but possibly to make them think that security was up to par.

I was outraged that I was selected for extra screening because of my law enforcement status. After contacting JetBlue administration, I was removed from the extra screening list and have not been selected for extra screening again.

I wonder how many potentially dangerous people are ignored because TSA agents are wasting time screening law enforcement officers and 78-year-old grandmothers because these groups are not protected from profiling. What do you think?

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