It's a useful statistic to consider as a baseline, but I'm not sure it's relevant to the accusation. "Racial profiling" usually means that people of a particul

It's a useful statistic to consider as a baseline, but I'm not sure it's relevant to the accusation. "Racial profiling" usually means that people of a particular race are singled out for attention to a degree greater than appropriate. One definition of "appropriate" is matching the incidence rate. Showing evidence that the number of people arrested matches the racial profile of the town might imply that the a rational shopowner should be equally suspicious of all races. But it doesn't (so far as I can see) show that in actuality they treat all races equally. Would the statistics be in any way contradicted if the store was in fact unduly suspicious of black customers?