Many people in the United States oppose police profiling in our cities and towns against African Americans and other minorities, while they support racial profiling at our airports. This research paper investigates how profiling everywhere can help improve our safety, without crossing the line into racism. This document also shows some examples of when profiling has turned into racism and how we can prevent it. There are many people in the United States who are against police profiling. According to dictionary.com, profiling is defined as "the use of specific characteristics, such as race or age, to make generalizations about a person, such as whether they may be involved in illegal activity." According to Dictionary.com, the police is defined as “a civil force organized to maintain order, prevent and detect crime, and enforce the laws.” By combining these two definitions, police profiling can be defined as an organized civilian force that maintains order and prevents crime by using specific characteristics to make generalizations about a person. Many people today are against police profiling because of what happened in history. They associate police profiling with police corruption and brutality, as well as racism. They examine what happened in high-profile cases like the Rodney King beating and associate police profiling with it. Combining these three separate definitions into one is incorrect, as they are three separate things. After the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, police profiling morphed into two separate parts: profiling of minorities in communities and profiling of people of Arab descent. respectable or followers of Islam in our airports. You will find many people in the Unit...... middle of paper......n-institute.org/html/_latimes-what_looks_like.htm>."Passenger Who Had Arabic Flash Cards Sues Over His detention - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking news, US, world, weather, entertainment and video news. Network. February 16, 2010. "Police | Definition of police on Dictionary.com:." Dictionary.com | Find meanings and definitions of at Dictionary.com. Network. February 16, 2010. "Profiling | Definition of profiling on Dictionary.com:." Dictionary.com | Find meanings and definitions of at Dictionary.com. Network. 16 February 2010. "Transcripts". CNN.com - Breaking news, US, world, weather, entertainment and video news. Network. February 16. 2010. .