RACE PROFILING IS A GOOD TECHNIQUE FOR POLICE USE

President Clinton has signed on to the notion that law-enforcement is
unjustly racially biased."[Racial Profiling] is wrong, it is destructive
and it must stop," he said.["Clinton orders racial-profiling probe," News,
June 10].

The problem is that it works,and the reason it works is that minorities
commit a disproportionate amount of crime.

According to Justice Department crime statistics for the last year
tabulated, in 1996,blacks alone accounted for more than half of most crime
categories,especially the more serious ones. When Hispanics are added,the
numbers are staggering.

As white males constitute some 37 percent of the population,while black and
Hispanic males are only 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively, it's amply
clear that the individual Hispanic and black male is statistically likely to
come under police scrutiny six or seven times more often than the individual
white male.

Recognizing the problem, of the ridiculous rates of crime in black and
Hispanic communities-and let's remember that law-abiding minorities are the
ones who predominantly suffer from these outlandish crime rates,the
ineffective police response being one of the reasons the police are rated
less highly in minority communities - and establishing successful
solutions, clearly would be more effective policy in the long run than
blinding ourselves even further to these unfortunate crime statistics.Giving
criminals a free ride because of there race
will only exacerbate the problems.

Bruce Mcintyre, Rancho Santa Margarita