Color-coded Threat Amounts Are No Longer
In 2001, the federal government instituted a color-coded system of terrorism alerts. In the almost 10 years since this system was put in place, it has proven more popular with comics than with the general public. A brand new alert system is being introduced on April 26 that the Homeland Security Department hopes could be much more effective.
New alerts in the warning strategy
One of 5 colors were listed for the “terror threat level” in the past terrorism alert strategy. There are only two levels in the new strategy. These are “elevated” and “imminent.”. There will also be alerts for areas and a time period. These could be specific. A new threat would be something such as “Elevated threat in the Boston airport area, expires 5/1/2001.” Since 2006, it has said “threat level orange” in the past instead. Threat warnings will also automatically expire after two weeks, and must be re-reviewed to remain active.
Making use of social media
The brand new terror alert strategy will also have a brand new feature, unique for the Department of Homeland Security. There can be terror alerts seen on Facebook and Twitter. Social media sites could be used. Individuals could be more willing to pay attention to what they see because they will already be at the websites where they are getting alerts, the Department hopes. Users can sign up to receive alerts via email, Facebook, Twitter, RSS data feeds, or web widgets for webmasters.
It needs to work
Part of the new alert strategy is the alerts will not be triggered as often. The standards for triggering it are higher. This is because of “threat fatigue.” Hopefully it can be avoided. Sometimes a threat is there for a long time. One that isn’t specific will not have an impact. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano has addressed this by stating “We don’t want people to live in fear, we want individuals to live in a state of alert and awareness.” Everyone gets to choose for themselves. How do you feel about this? Some suggest that the “threat fatigue” will just go up while others say it can be effective.
