News Room: SB 1582: Sea Marshals on Cruise Ships

Cruise ships sailing to and from California ports would be required to have a law enforcement officer known as an ocean ranger onboard to protect passengers, if a bill now before the state's legislature is enacted. The California Ocean Ranger measure cleared its first hurdle last week when the state Senate's Public Safety Committee gave it unanimous approval, pushing the bill to the next step in the legislative process. State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) introduced the measure, asserting that the cruise industry was not adequately protecting passengers from crime nor complying with environmental laws. read more ...

SACRAMENTO -- A woman who says she was raped on a cruise ship -- and says public safety is so lax nothing was done -- plans to testify today in support of a bill that would require the industry to pay for peace officers to travel aboard. Sen. Joe Simitian's measure would attempt to improve public safety on cruise ships by developing a seamless network of "ocean rangers" through pacts with other states bordering the Pacific Ocean, and with Hawaii. read more ...

Sacramento – Legislation aimed at curbing cruise ship crime and pollution passed its first hurdle today –– with flying colors. On a bipartisan 5-0 vote, the Senate Public Safety Committee approved State Senator Joe Simitian’s Senate Bill 1582, legislation that protects the public, enhances homeland security and ensures compliance with laws banning offshore dumping of cruise ship waste. The measure requires that every cruise ship entering and exiting a California port have a qualified Ocean Ranger on board. read more ...

Sacramento – State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) announced today legislation to require that every cruise ship entering and exiting a California port have a qualified Ocean Ranger on board to protect the public, enhance homeland security and ensure compliance with laws banning offshore dumping of cruise ship waste. read more ...

One State Senator wants to put a peace officer on every cruise ship in California waters and is pushing legislation to require that. read more ...

Seeking to improve public safety on the high seas, a state senator introduced a bill Friday that would require cruise ships sailing from California ports to have a peace officer on board. If the measure passes, California would have the most stringent state regulations on the $35.7-billion industry, which has come under congressional and public scrutiny after several high-profile cases of missing people, passengers overboard and sexual assault in recent years. "We've got air marshals on planes with a couple hundred passengers, but we've got no one on board the cruise ships with 10 times the number of passengers," said state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the bill's author. read more ...