A loophole in federal law keeps Americans from having access to information about the vast majority of crimes committed on cruise ships, according to a new report released by Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV).
Rockefeller chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and commissioned the report, titled "Cruise Ship Crime: Consumers Have Incomplete Access to Cruise Ship Data," which was published Wednesday.
It reveals a huge gap between the numbers of crimes committed on cruises and those that are publicly reported.
Under the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 (CVSSA), cruise lines are required to report "any allegation of crime" to the FBI as soon as possible. That covers only serious violations, including homicide, suspicious death, missing United States nationals, sexual assault, kidnapping, and theft of property in excess of $10,000.
The Coast Guard is responsible for posting and maintaining public crime statistics, based on information from the FBI.
But according to "Cruise Ship Crime," which used FBI records acquired through Freedom of Information requests, of 959 total crimes reported to the FBI since 2011, only 31 were then reported publicly. That's 3.2%.
The numbers are less skewed when only crimes that cruise lines must report — violations like homicide and sexual assault — are considered, but things are still largely hidden from the public eye. Just 31 out of 130 serious incidents were made public, 24%.
What's with the gap?
According to the report, it comes down to how the FBI reads the law: "The FBI interprets the CVSSA to require public reporting of only those incidents that are no longer under investigation by the FBI."
Those who want to know how much crime happens on cruise ships can see only statistics from the Coast Guard. For April 1 to June 30 of this year, those numbers include no homicides, suspicious deaths, missing US nationals, kidnappings, or thefts worth more than $10,000. They show two cases of serious assault, and five of sexual assault.
That figure — just seven noteworthy crimes among all cruises in a three month period — is reassuring.
But without filing a FOIA request, there's no way to know how much crime is actually reported by the cruise lines to the FBI. If the Bureau has not concluded its investigation, there's no public record of it. The upside is that the public is not given information that could distort how dangerous cruises are, because the alleged crimes have not yet been properly investigated.
But it also keeps people in the dark about open investigations, pending prosecutions, and reported matters that don't fall under the various serious crime categories — all of which can be valuable information.
Proposed Legislation
Rockefeller rightly notes that overall crime rates on cruise ships are very low. On its website, Carnival writes "the incidence of crime on board is very small given the large number of guests we carry" — on track for 4 million this year.
To give the public access to more complete records, Sen. Rockefeller has introduced the Cruise Passenger Protection Acts of 2013. The bill would "make all crimes alleged on cruise ships publicly available information," and require the Department of Transportation to establish a victim advocate to make cruise customers aware of their rights and get access to law enforcement if necessary.
SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters
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