In the war on drugs profiling was used by the police so as to help them find drug smugglers.
On the New Jersey turnpike blacks and hispanics were getting arrested in larger number than whites, even though whites were a larger part of the population. This was found to be racial discrimination (of course the question never answered was what percentage of the CRIMINALs, not the general population were white) and the practice of racial profiling has become a hot button item. Furthermore, Arabics sued for discimination in the aftermath of the gulf war because more arabs were being searched than caucasions when boarding aircraft.
So as a result of those cases Profiling became a dirty word. I suspect that the pendulum may be about to swing the other way, but don't count on it.
Wino