This episode marks the crossover of three Law and Order franchises. Dick Wolf first proposed a cross-over for Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) which centered on a terrorist's plot and a ticking time-bomb scenario. It was nixed when terrorists hijacked the planes that brought down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
On April 19, 1995, The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was brought down by truck bomb composed of Ammonia Nitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO) by a domestic terror group.
Pasha D. Lychnikoff, the actor playing Daniel Rublev, guest starred in the Season 11 episode Ace (2010), as the broker of a black market adoption ring Stabler and Benson are investigating.
The episode title "Gimme Shelter" is a nod to a song by the group The Rolling Stones, which was inspired by the chaos and civil unrest of the Vietnam War era of the 1960's.