Colour Deaf

16. June 2008 by Martin Suter.

As I was walking to my gate on Sunday at the Orlando airport, I “tuned in” to the broadcast that continuously drones over sound systems in airports across the country. “The Department of Homeland Security Threat Level is Orange”, said the voice.

Just as with the exhortations to “Mind the gap” in the London Tube, the DHS threat level announcements are a ubiquitous part of the aural landscape, so much so that they are simply background noise.

“Why Orange?”, I wondered, “Why not Yellow or Blue, or some other shade of the DHS rainbow?”

It’s hard to know what constitutes an Orange threat level. I imagine that there are different security protocols for TSA employees based on a graded scale, but does John Q Public do anything differently based on whether the official threat level is Orange or Yellow?

Who are they kidding by including Blue and Green on the scale, even Yellow, for that matter. Does anyone expect that we’ll see a DHS Security Threat Level of Green in this lifetime? What will it take to move the needle on airline safety and security from Orange to Yellow again? And what will that mean to us? Will we get to keep our shoes on or carry full size bottles of water through security checkpoints?

I, for one, would love for security broadcasts to be turned off, except in the event of specific threats, much as is done with Amber Alerts. I know that I’d pay much closer attention if the announcement was meaningful and occasional instead of a constant drone about a meaningless colour gradient.

Aren’t safety and security black & white?

That’s my .02!

Martin Suter

(martin.suter@iplicensing.net)

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