Originally Posted by
Laarbruch72
The problem with profiling of course is that it would give the likes of Al Qaeda an easy side door in. All they have to do is find a clean skinned operative, i.e. a European of fair complexion open to their ideology with no previous links, and they know he won't be screened at all. Even better if they can find an elderly, female European, going by some of the logic on here. No chance of her being screened, as long as we follow your line and just search the dark skinned men with beards eh?
There is far more to profiling than just the 'look' of the particular pax.
Does the person fly regularly, frequent flier on a routine trip been doing the same trips for a long time (years), etc. - likely to be low risk score without other flags.
Person has no record of previous air travel apparently clean but will be checked further, then add score for type of pax and other flags.
Add risk scores for payment type, flight type (single or return), booking well ahead or close to departure, previous countries visited, citizenship(s), known relationships, etc etc.
Check all pax for tell tale signs of malevolent intent and raise score if necessary
Then move to race, age, sex etc,.