SafeShield was born in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. During the 2002 midyear meeting of the SACOP Division, there was a discussion of the need to understand the current and future physical threats to police officers. SACOP knew that in the preceding years the numbers of officers killed had been increasing and new threats posed by chemical and biological weapons were increasing. Disturbingly, there was stark evidence that criminals were increasingly being armed with more powerful and destructive weapons. Most unfortunately, nothing in the intervening years has occurred to lessen these concerns.