diff --git a/src/tm-threads.c b/src/tm-threads.c
index 9df10ff937..bc866aa215 100644
--- a/src/tm-threads.c
+++ b/src/tm-threads.c
@@ -1521,6 +1521,64 @@ void TmThreadKillThread(ThreadVars *tv)
     return;
 }
 
+/** \internal
+ *
+ *  \brief make sure that all packet threads are done processing their
+ *         in-flight packets
+ */
+static void TmThreadDrainPacketThreads(void)
+{
+    /* value in seconds */
+#define THREAD_KILL_MAX_WAIT_TIME 60
+    /* value in microseconds */
+#define WAIT_TIME 1000
+
+    uint64_t total_wait_time = 0;
+
+    ThreadVars *tv = NULL;
+
+again:
+    if (total_wait_time > (THREAD_KILL_MAX_WAIT_TIME * 1000000)) {
+        SCLogWarning(SC_ERR_SHUTDOWN, "unable to get all packet threads "
+                "to process their packets in time");
+        return;
+    }
+
+    SCMutexLock(&tv_root_lock);
+
+    /* all receive threads are part of packet processing threads */
+    tv = tv_root[TVT_PPT];
+
+    while (tv) {
+        if (tv->inq != NULL) {
+            /* we wait till we dry out all the inq packets, before we
+             * kill this thread.  Do note that you should have disabled
+             * packet acquire by now using TmThreadDisableReceiveThreads()*/
+            if (!(strlen(tv->inq->name) == strlen("packetpool") &&
+                        strcasecmp(tv->inq->name, "packetpool") == 0)) {
+                PacketQueue *q = &trans_q[tv->inq->id];
+                if (q->len != 0) {
+                    SCMutexUnlock(&tv_root_lock);
+
+                    total_wait_time += WAIT_TIME;
+
+                    /* don't sleep while holding a lock */
+                    usleep(WAIT_TIME);
+                    goto again;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        tv = tv->next;
+    }
+
+    SCMutexUnlock(&tv_root_lock);
+    return;
+
+#undef THREAD_KILL_MAX_WAIT_TIME
+#undef WAIT_TIME
+}
+
 /**
  *  \brief Disable all threads having the specified TMs.
  *
@@ -1618,6 +1676,11 @@ again:
 
     SCMutexUnlock(&tv_root_lock);
 
+    /* finally wait for all packet threads to have
+     * processed all of their 'live' packets so we
+     * don't process the last live packets together
+     * with FFR packets */
+    TmThreadDrainPacketThreads();
     return;
 }
 
@@ -1635,6 +1698,8 @@ void TmThreadDisablePacketThreads(void)
 
     ThreadVars *tv = NULL;
 
+    /* first drain all packet threads of their packets */
+    TmThreadDrainPacketThreads();
 again:
     SCMutexLock(&tv_root_lock);