Thinking It Through

Yesterday was the second round of Congressional hearings in Washington about cruise line safety. Surprisingly, the news media seems to have lost some interest in these, and have given it relatively little coverage compared to the first hearings. The testimony yielded no real surprises, because those giving it have had their stories covered multiple times in the media.

What the process is doing, however, is demonstrating that the principals involved aren’t very good at thinking things through one step beyond their own perspective. They don’t seem to be asking, "Why is this like this?" Instead, they seem focused on figuring out what legislation to create, even though it hasn’t really sunk in that there may not really be a problem.

There seem to be three perceived problems: They are suspicious of the low crime figures reported by the cruise lines. Victims/families report that cruise lines are uncooperative in reporting details of incidents or allowing them access to information the line may have. Victims don’t feel they get justice from the system.

Are the figures accurate?
The cruise industry released the following statistics: In the three-year period 2003-2005, there were 178 complaints of sexual assault, 4 robberies and 24 missing persons while during the same period the cruise industry carried more than 31 million passengers.

Congressman Shays, who chairs the hearings, has said on several occasions that he is suspicious that the cruise lines are underreporting the incidents because it is in their interest to do so.

Yesterday, on MSNBC, Congressman Shays said, "We don‘t know how big a problem it is. If the statistics are accurate, then it‘s not a problem."

Thinking one step beyond the question of if the cruise lines are underreporting the incidents consider three things:

Even if the figures are doubled, tripled or even quadrupled, they still demonstrate that going on a cruise, statistically, is not a dangerous thing to do.

Another point to consider is that if the cruise lines aren’t reporting crimes to the FBI, as they are already required to do by law, where are the victims of those crimes?

It’s not very reasonable to assume that if a person disappears, their family or traveling companion isn’t going to expect a report from a law enforcement agency. Likewise, if a passenger is the victim of an assault or other serious crime, they are going to expect some follow-up from a shoreside law enforcement agency. If the cruise line hasn’t reported it, the individual surely will.

Going beyond that, if there are crimes out there that have gone unreported by the cruise line, as extensively as this has been covered in the media in the last few months, it’s hard to believe the victims of those crimes or their families have not now come forward to let the world know the cruise line did not report the crimes.

Contrary to what Congressman Shays thinks, there are two incentives for the cruise lines to report these crimes. One is that they are required to by law. The other is that if they don’t, and it later comes out that they didn’t (which it almost surely would), the cruise lines are going to look twice as bad as if they had just reported the crime and added another tally mark to the number of crimes.

The cruise lines understand the power of honesty in the media, and how it would destroy all their credibility if they were to be found less than honest in what they say (although they want to put their spin on stories). Whenever there is a report of a missing person, we find the lines are forthcoming about it each and every time we’ve asked and usually have a statement ready to with the basic facts by the time we call. In the entire time CND has been in existence, there has only been one instance where a cruise line has refused us at least the basic information about a missing person.

Are the cruise lines uncooperative?
It seems a common complaint by crime victims or families of passengers who disappear that they have trouble getting information from the cruise line much beyond what is reported in the media.

People seem to think that because they’ve had a tragedy occur onboard a cruise ship, the company is going to open all their records in every aspect of their operation to the passenger, the family or their representatives to allow them to know anything at all about the incident.

Again, they would be a bit more understanding of the situation if they would think one step beyond their own perspective.

First of all, cruise lines do cooperate with law enforcement agencies with the proper credentials. The families or their representatives/lawyers are not law enforcement agencies and really have no legal or official standing to look into private records of the company. Unfortunately, cruise lines need to protect themselves. In this litigious society, while it might seem a nice thing to do and give families any information they want, the sad fact is, an attorney may later find a way to use that information against them.

But even thinking beyond that, it has to be considered the rights of others are involved: privacy rights and the right to have the vacation they planned.

In the data the cruise line has, it has information on thousands of passengers, which they may not appreciate just anyone who feels a perceived need, to have access to. Anyone looking at your onboard account knows a lot about what you were doing on board, even how much you were drinking. The tapes from the security cameras can trace your movements around the ship, see what you were doing and whom you were doing it with. The security system can even tell exactly when you opened your stateroom door. Then there’s your home address and contact information, as well as your passport information and even any plans you have to travel again. Would anyone really want the cruise line opening such extensive data such as that to any individual who doesn’t even have specific information he is looking for?

Celebrity is being criticized in the media by the family of Merrian Carver as uncooperative because they won’t turn over a list of all passengers’ names and addresses aboard Carver’s sailing so they can be contacted in case they may know anything at all about their daughter. The family of George Smith is criticizing Royal Caribbean for not keeping their ship in port for an unspecified length of time and letting passengers on and off the ship in case law enforcement officials might want to do more investigation or questioning of passengers. (Law enforcement officials had already cleared the ship to sail.) These requests would certainly infringe on the rights of the other passengers on the ship.

Family members and victims can’t expect cruise lines to cooperate with their requests at the expense of the rights of their other customers.

Do crime victims get justice?
Once a crime is reported to the cruise line, the line preserves any evidence they reasonably can, and contacts law enforcement officials. The cruise line does not investigate the crime; that’s the job of local authorities. (The cruise line may do their own investigation for their own internal purposes. No matter what the line does, law enforcement officials do their own investigation.)

The cruise lines tell us they cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies, and we have yet to hear any report from any law enforcement agency who indicated in any way that a cruise line was not cooperating with them, or that they felt the cruise line was standing in the way of their investigation.

Once the investigation is done, it’s up to the local prosecutor how to proceed. Like crimes reported on shore, many of the crimes reported on ships don’t get prosecuted because the prosecutor doesn’t think he/she can get a conviction based on the evidence.

In those instances, the police don’t arrest the individual, but the cruise line, which has a lower threshold of tolerance for employment, terminates the crew member and sends him/her home.

Victims then often charge the cruise line is covering up the incident by sending the accused person out of the reach of the US justice system. Actually, what is happening is that the cruise line is responding to the victim’s complaint the only way they can when the law enforcement agency chooses not to arrest the individual.

If the local officials don’t arrest the crew member, then it becomes the cruise line’s problem of what to do with him. If he is guilty of the crime, as the passenger accuses, they certainly don’t want him onboard to possibly commit the crime again. They look at the facts and see if he has broken any of the cruise line’s rules, which are rather strict (such as simply fraternizing with a passenger, or being in a passenger’s cabin). If so, he/she is terminated and, as prescribed in their contract, immediately sent home (which is a standard provision in seamen’s contracts).

Before charging that the cruise line is trying to cover up the crime by sending the crew member home, victims again need to think that one step beyond, and answer the question, "What else can the cruise line do?" unless they want that crew member to remain onboard. Depending on the crew member’s nationality, they may or may not be able to enter the US, and if they could, the cruise line certainly couldn’t imprison him/her while waiting for the victim’s civil action to be brought.

Finally, in the last few days leading up to the hearings, victims and their families have been saying repeatedly they are finding it difficult to get justice because the cruise lines are operating outside the United States where US laws don’t apply and seem to be implying this is some sort of device the cruise lines are using to thwart the US justice system.

This is some thinking they needed to do before setting out on their cruise. Unless a passenger is sailing on a US-flagged ship, in US waters, the US justice system does not apply. Just because they are US citizens, it does not mean that their US rights apply once they leave the United States, and when in another country, that country’s laws and legal system prevail. That is something not only cruise passengers should be aware of, but anyone leaving the country, by any means. That’s elementary, and it’s surprising this comes as a shock to them.

It’s sad that the victims and their families have had these tragedies happen to them, and as Congressman John Mica, who also sits on the committee holding the hearings, said yesterday, their experiences are "not typical of the experience that millions and millions of people have had [on cruise ships]."

Little of what we've said in this article seemed to come out in yesterday's hearings or be covered by the media. Perhaps by reading this, you now have a better perspective on some of the issues than the people in the hearing room yesterday or those in front of the cameras this week.

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