Just as the current national terrorism threat assessment incorporates a color-coded system to alert citizens to heightened levels of danger, police officers should use their own personal threat assessment system. The author describes a color-coded system based on the green, yellow, and red colors of a traffic light. When a police officer is at home with the doors locked and everything is as it should be, the police officer can relax safely because the personal threat color is green. As soon as an officer lets anyone into their house or goes out of their house to run an errand or to report to work, their personal threat color changes to yellow. Yellow simply signals that a heightened sense of awareness is in order so that if anything threatening does occur, the police officer will be prepared. Yellow should be the personal threat color any time an officer is on patrol or outside of his or her own home. Finally, the color red indicates a confirmed safety threat. The personal threat color of red should only be used when an officer registers an actual threat. Once the threat has been handled, the personal threat color may go back to yellow. By using this color-coded system of personal threat assessment, police officers will always be ready to take action in any situation.