The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Committee on Homeland Security entered its current, final incarnation in 2003, although the committee arose out of the IACP’s response to 9/11 and the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In order to talk accurately about the committee and its efforts, a logical first step might be to define the term “homeland security”; however, it is difficult to find one universally accepted definition. Some documents focus the definition solely around combating terrorism, while others propose a more holistic understanding and include non-terrorism security concerns such as U.S. preparedness for natural disasters. The most comprehensive research into the definition of homeland security was in the January 8, 2013, Congressional Research Service report Defining Homeland Security: Analysis and Congressional Considerations, which discussed seven different U.S. federal strategic documents, each of which gave a different or varying definition of homeland security.