Over-alerting: Incomplete, inconsistent, and not actionable

Recently, my colleague Dr. Michele Wood and I published a paper that defines and identifies dimensions of over-alerting. While some of those dimension are probably recognizable, such as geographical over-reach and redundancy, we also found that incomplete messages that are not actionable comprise fit into this typology. And today's WEA fits it perfectly.

In this case, there is no sender, no location, and no time. In fact, there isn't a real hazard described or even a protective action. One could argue that the man with firearm is the threat, and in the area is the location. But the lack of specificity (black male, black/gray shirt and blue jeans) makes it incredibly difficult to act upon if there is more than one person who fits this description in the area. It would be very useful to know if the male with firearm is being sought because he has threatened or harmed someone and is now trying to run away to protect himself from being caught, or if he is looking for an opportunity to hurt other people. Again, lack of specificity makes it not actionable.

These two messages were issued back to back, with the second appearing to end the first, but there is a reference (abbreviated as "ref") to a prior message that indicated people were to shelter in place; that instruction clearly was not included in the first message. It raises questions about what the sender believed that the first message said, or implied. Was there an expectation that if you tell people that there is a male with a firearm they will KNOW to shelter in place? That's not evident to this reader.

And we really need to discuss the use of the words "shelter in place." If a message to shelter in place had been provided, what exactly were people to do? Go inside, lock their doors, stay away from windows? That would be helpful information for avoiding being shot.

And last, if a shelter in place order had been issued, does the sentence "suspect is in police custody" mean that the order is now lifted or ended? Are we to interpret that the threat is over and we can resume what we were doing previously?

If you are a regular reader of The Warn Room, you know that we point out the gaps in a message with an intention of improving future alerts and warnings. In this case, both messages stand for some improvement. It increases understanding and ability to take action. And it also will demonstrate organizational capability, showing that the message sender knows how to communicate effectively to keep their population safe.

Now back to why this matters for over-alerting. WEAs are intentionally disruptive. They break into your daily life at unexpected times to get your attention when it is most necessary. This means using it cautiously and choosing to use it only when it is vital to capture people's attention to protect them from harm. When messages like these are issued and people don't know who they are from, what they are for, and what they should do to protect themselves, it leaves them with a lack of understanding and an inability to take action. If the first message was intended to instruct people to protect themselves by sheltering indoors away from a potential shooter, it failed. And this is truly a problem.

We know that when people feel over-alerted, they have to make a decision about how they will interact with future messages. The public has options. Perhaps they are happy with the message and continue on feeling that it is better to be alerted, even if they didn't understand they were in danger and needed to take action. In the future, they can choose to listen to you and to trust what is said in emergency messages. They can also complain about being alerted and ask for better messaging in the future. Or, they can turn alerts off. And that would mean no longer having access to the most powerful tool in the alerting toolkit, leaving lives at risk.

For more recommended contents, be sure to download The Warning Lexicon - it's free and offers step-by-step instructions on how to write a better warning message.

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