It is another name for government oppression and martial law by local government. Suspension of Constitutional Rights, control of individual resources and choices and exertion of government control are the operative words here.
If one cared to investigate what the effect of this would be if an emergency occurred, he/she need only to look back at New Orleans police did in the aftermath of Katrina.
In this Obama Day and Age where the DHS has stockpiled billions of rounds of ammo, bought thousands of assault rifles (they call them personal defense weapons), black helicopters, hundreds of thousands of sets of pepper spray and crowd containment devices, MRAPs, black helicopters, Predators and the like, what the hell kind of ‘shield’ can one expect from local government?
The sad and scary thing is that we will need some type of force to handle the gangs of looters that will destroy the cities and then move to the suburbs and then to the country sides when things do go bad.
Chances are the hordes will be stopped within a hundred miles or two of the big cities as they run into well armed country folk, but still, the destruction and death in the cities will be historic.