Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the colored terrorist alert codes.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge unveiled a new “homeland security advisory system” today, introducing a color-coded grid that is meant to give law enforcement agencies and the public a clearer sense of the nation’s risk of a terrorist attack.
The system has five levels: green, or low, which denotes a low risk of terrorist attacks; blue, or guarded, for a general risk; yellow, or elevated, for a significant risk; orange, or high, for a high risk, and red, or severe, for a severe risk.
In the planning stages for several months, the new system was developed after widespread complaints about the vague instructions that went along with the four alerts that have been issued by the federal government since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It was the result of a consensus among federal, state and local government leaders and law enforcement agencies, Ridge said.
“I think it’s a substantial improvement over how we previously operated,” Ridge said in an interview this morning. He described the threat of terrorism as a “permanent condition” that required new ways of thinking about preparation and response.
Does anyone pay any attention to the system any more?
The problem is that, I think it probably was a good idea (or could have been). Unfortunately, its application was haphazard, more than once seen as political, subject to satire, and …
… well, honestly, we haven’t had another 9/11. If we were dealing with terrorist attacks, or even more threats, on a regular basis (and, mercifully, we’re not, or at least we’re not being told of them), then a more dynamic scale would make sense. As it is … well, when you stay on yellow alert all the time, it does sort of fade into the background.
(via Scott)