I really enjoyed reading this article on security and counter-terrorism on Wired today.  It’s a great piece on how everyone from the average citizen right on up to police officers and government officials are encouraged by the system to report anything suspicious, or different, or strange, no matter how ridiculous.

Here’s how it goes:

“Someone sees something, so he says something. The person he says it to — a policeman, a security guard, a flight attendant — now faces a choice: ignore or escalate. Even though he may believe that it’s a false alarm, it’s not in his best interests to dismiss the threat. If he’s wrong, it’ll cost him his career. But if he escalates, he’ll be praised for “doing his job” and the cost will be borne by others. So he escalates. And the person he escalates to also escalates, in a series of CYA (cover your ass) decisions. And before we’re done, innocent people have been arrested, airports have been evacuated, and hundreds of police hours have been wasted.”

It’s a sad truth of this time that this is the case.  People are scared of using their own heads for fear of the personal and professional consequences.  The big money quote from the article is:

“If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get amateur security.”

It’s a good read, I have mentioned the author, Bruce Schneier, before.  Another good article by him is here, about how the very goal of terrorism is to cause terror, not blow things up, so we should respond with less fear and more rational thought.  All good stuff, read it sometime.