House of Representatives Requires Cruise Lines to Report Crime

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Under a new bill approved on Friday, October 23, 2009 by the House of Representatives, cruise lines serving U.S. ports will be required to improve their crime reporting process and implement better safety measures to ensure passenger and crew safety. Under the new guidelines, cruise lines will now be required to publicly report shipboard crimes, employ U.S. doctors, have at least one crime-scene investigator at their disposal, and also install peepholes in cabin doors as a safety measure.

Currently, cruise ships that are registered in foreign countries are exempt from federal legislations and are not required to report any shipboard crimes or illnesses. However, the House has voted on stricter measures for all cruise ships that will be serving any U.S. port.

According to a recent press release from the EU News Network, the president of International Cruise Victims Kendall Carver is "absolutely thrilled" by the new legislation. Karver states that, "It's been a long road and justice is winning out against an industry that really did everything they could to avoid regulations." (Source: OfficialWire.com).

Under the new rules, cruise ships will need to be equipped with innovative video-surveillance systems, make use of time-sensitive key cards to ensure passengers safety, and have certain medications on board to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Victims of sexual assault on board a cruise line would also need to have access to a rape-crisis hot line.

This is a first for the cruise industry, and may help to reduce the number of cases of missing passengers, sexual attacks, the spread of illness on board a ship, and other common safety issues that the cruise industry faces on a regular basis. The new rules will require stricter monitoring of all surveillance systems and require cruise lines to report all crimes in an appropriate way so that the situation can be investigated and documented in a timely manner.