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Good
morning Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member LaTourette, and
members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity
to be here today to provide an update on the FBI's work with
the U.S. Coast Guard, the cruise line industry and the victims
of cruise line crime regarding crime aboard cruise ships.
Reporting
Agreement
I testified
earlier this year that, after many months in development,
in March 2007, the FBI, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Cruise
Lines International Association (CLIA) reached an agreement
on voluntary, standardized protocols for CLIA member lines
to report allegations of serious violations of U.S. law committed
aboard cruise ships. These reporting procedures are in addition
to, but not in lieu of, the mandatory reporting requirements,
e.g., the requirements of 46 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Part 4, or the requirements of 33 CFR Part 120. Further, this
reporting does not replace or override any agency responsibilities
and coordination mandated by the Maritime Operational Threat
Response Plan.
Incident
Statistics
Pursuant
to the agreement, on April 1, 2007, the FBI began collecting
and tracking the incident reports submitted by CLIA member
lines. I would like to take a few minutes this morning to
report on the results of this effort. Through August 24,2007,
the FBI received 207 reports from CLIA members. Many of these
matters did not require criminal investigation and as such,
should be viewed as "incident reports" not "crime
reports." For example, reports were received of attempted
suicides of passengers, as well as matters with purely civil
implications.
Sixteen,
or 8 percent, of all reports involved incidents that occurred
while a passenger was ashore outside of the United States
and, therefore, outside the jurisdiction of the FBI and other
U.S. law enforcement. For example, a passenger reported that
he was robbed by two subjects in a vehicle while ashore in
the Bahamas. In matters such as these, the reporting agreement
holds that, although cruise lines may report incidents which
occurred outside of the United States' jurisdiction to the
FBI, they are not required to do so.
Of the
207 incident reports received by the FBI, 39 incidents, or
19 percent, were responded to and/or investigated by law enforcement
other than the FBI. These law enforcement agencies included
local police departments in the United States, as well as
foreign law enforcement agencies. Nineteen reported incidents
occurred while the ship was docked. In the United States,
the jurisdiction over an event that occurs aboard a vessel
generally lie with the state in whose waters the vessels are
moored. Accordingly, a report of a theft of items estimated
at $30,000 which was stolen while a ship was docked in Galveston,
Texas, was investigated by the Galveston Police Department.
In further
breakdown of the incidents that were reported to the FBI during
this initial reporting period I provide the following: The
agreement with CLIA and the U.S. Coast Guard lists eight categories
of incidents which are to be telephonically reported by CLIA
members to the nearest FBI field office or Legal Attache office.
These matters—homicide, suspicious death, missing U.S.
national, kidnapping, assault with serious bodily injury,
sexual assault, firing or tampering with vessels, and theft
greater than $10,000—involve potentially serious violations
of U.S. law and are to be called in to the FBI as soon as
possible following the incident. After telephonic contact,
CLIA members are instructed to follow-up with a standardized
written report. All other, less serious matters are reported
under a general "other" category and are brought
to the FBI's attention by submission of a written report.
During
the first five months of reporting under the agreement, there
were no reports of homicide, suspicious death or kidnapping
aboard CLIA member ships. There were four reports of missing
U.S. nationals. Of these four reports, one involved a husband
and wife who took most of their belongings with them and chose
not to re-board after docking at a foreign port. The three
remaining reports involved passengers whose past histories
and behavior while on board the ship strongly suggested they
had taken their own lives.
CLIA
members reported 13 assaults with serious bodily injury. The
FBI opened two investigative cases from these reports, both
of which are ongoing. Several matters submitted in the "assault
with serious bodily injury" category were, in fact, of
lesser seriousness.
The FBI
investigates sexual assaults as defined in Title 18 of the
United States Code (USC), Sections 2241through 2243 and 2244
(a) and (c). Since April 1, the cruise lines have reported
41 instances of sexual assault. Of these 41 incidents, 19
represented allegations of sexual activity generally categorized
as rape, three of which occurred on shore, and, thus, outside
the jurisdiction of the FBI. Based on the 41 reports, the
FBI opened 13 investigative cases. Five of these cases have
been closed for reasons of victim reluctance to pursue prosecution
or prosecutive declination from the United States Attorney's
Office. Eight investigations are ongoing.
During
this period, there were 13 reported incidents of theft of
more than $10,000. Nine of these incidents involved jewelry,
two involved cash, one involved miscellaneous items from onboard
shops, and one involved food products.
There
was one report of firing or tampering with vessels.
The remaining
135 incident reports, or 65% of all reports, involved less
serious matters such as simple assault, low-dollar loss theft,
fraud, suspicious activity, bomb threats, sexual contact,
or activity that was not criminal in nature. Sexual contact,
defined in 18USC 2244 (b) as, essentially, uninvited touching
of a sexual nature, made up 28 reports. Thirty-six of the
135 reports involved simple assault matters to include punching,
slapping or pushing actions, and 41 reports related to theft
of less than $10,000.
Incidents
on board ships when investigated by the FBI are documented
through investigative files under the "Crimes on the
High Seas" classification. Of the 207 incident reports,
the FBI opened 18 investigative files. This number is consistent
with the number of "Crimes on the High Seas" cases
opened annually for the past five years.
Based
on my personal involvement in the matter of cruise ship crime
reporting over the past year, and the fact that many reports
we have received during the first five months of reporting
fall outside FBI jurisdiction, do not constitute crimes under
U.S. law, or are less serious than characterized by the cruise
lines, it is my belief that CLIA member cruise lines are generally
making a good faith effort to report all crimes, or allegations
of crime, set out under the agreement.
Coordination
with CLIA and the International Cruise Victms' Association
I would
like to briefly update the Subcommittee on other matters which
the FBI has undertaken in support of its role in investigating
crimes aboard cruise ships. Since I last testified, the FBI
has met again with members of the International Cruise Victims'
Association. Kendall Carver, whom you will hear from later
today, came to FBI Headquarters in July accompanied by two
members of his group. I met personally with Mr. Carver and
his associates to hear their concerns and to explain the work
being done by the Coast Guard, CLIA, and the FBI regarding
cruise ship crime reporting. Over the past six months, my
associates at the FBI and I have met or spoken with CLIA and
the Coast Guard regularly to check progress on our reporting
protocols to refine those protocols where necessary.
Training:
Finally,
a note about proactive steps being taken by the FBI and CLIA.
When I last testified, I described the training provided by
the FBI's Regional Evidence Response Teams (ERT) to cruise
line staff captains and security managers over the last three
years. The FBI's ERT Unit in Quantico, Virginia, has recently
completed a universal PowerPoint presentation for evidence
preservation. This training will be made available to the
cruise line industry in the near future.
In closing,
the FBI is committed to continuing its work with the cruise
line industry, the U.S. Coast Guard, and victims' groups to
ensure full reporting of crimes aboard cruise ships and to
facilitate more effective first response to such crimes.
Thank
you Chairman Cummings and members of the Subcommittee for
the opportunity to testify today. I am happy to answer any
questions you may have.
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