Carnival to Screen Passengers thru Interpol

[DebJ14]

MIAMI, Nov. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, today announced it will be the first maritime company to partner with INTERPOL for advanced security screening across its global operations, including its 10 brands and fleet of 101 ships that annually carry nearly 11 million passengers, or about half the global cruise market, to more than 700 ports around the world.

 

Carnival Corporation received approval today to integrate its global passenger check-in process with INTERPOL'S I-Checkit system, a secure method for screening travel document information against INTERPOL's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, containing over 69 million records from 175 countries.

 

Carnival Corporation received approval at the Assembly to integrate its global passenger check-in process with INTERPOL's I-Checkit system.

The approval resulted from a resolution vote held today in Bali, Indonesia, at INTERPOL'S General Assembly, the annual meeting of 190 member countries that comprise the world's largest international police organization.

 

Today's news follows a three-month I-Checkit pilot program on four of Carnival Corporation's Princess Cruises brand ships. The trial included 34,000 travel documents that were successfully checked against the SLTD database to demonstrate the system's ability to enhance security for the global cruise industry.

 

The full results of the pilot program were presented to INTERPOL's General Assembly today prior to its member countries passing an official resolution that enables Carnival Corporation to expand its I-Checkit deployment among its 10 cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Its brands include Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).

 

Carnival Corporation and INTERPOL can now work together on an expanded partnership agreement to cover a phased rollout of the I-Checkit system across its brands. By partnering with INTERPOL on a global integration of I-Checkit technology, Carnival Corporation will further strengthen its leading safety and security protocols by creating a single global standard for security screening used throughout its ports of call.

 

"One of our top priorities at Carnival Corporation is the safety and security of our guests, our crew and our ships," said Bill Burke, chief maritime officer for Carnival Corporation and retired Vice Admiral of the U.S. Navy. "As the world's largest cruise company carrying hundreds of thousands of daily passengers, having a highly effective and efficient security screening process is a crucial part of how we serve our guests every day. Partnering with INTERPOL enables us to seamlessly enhance security across our global fleet while also maintaining our commitment to providing our guests with a great vacation experience. This is another important step for our company and industry as we continue taking proactive measures to enhance the safety and security of our passengers and crew members."

 

As Carnival Corporation expands I-Checkit globally, the company's brands will be able to automatically query the SLTD database before and during the boarding process to see if any passenger travel documents have been reported lost or stolen. To ensure privacy and security, no personal data is accessed or transmitted in this process.

 

"With its real-time secure global alert system, criminal intelligence potential and compliance framework, I-Checkit provides an invaluable preventative and investigative capability for global policing," said Michael O'Connell, director of INTERPOL's operational support and analysis directorate and head of the I-Checkit program. "I-Checkit's initiative with Carnival Corporation offers an additional layer of safety in the travel sector by creating an international standard for security screening."

 

Additional information on the Interpol I-Checkit system can be found at http://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/I-Checkit.

[maldenmusic]

So will passengers notice any difference?

[sparks1093]

So will passengers notice any difference?

 

Only those on the "list";).

[joepeka]

So will passengers notice any difference?

I'm guessing it will depend at what points in the process the Interpol data is interrogated and what technology is driving it (real time to online Interpol resources? real time to an offline Interpol-provided data extract on CCL's systems?, etc.). It really depends on what the integration with with I-Checkit system amounts to.

[idraconis]

Maybe Interpol can fix the the cheers program problem.

[sfaaa]

Fun ship no longer fun for bad guys.

[DebJ14]

Fun ship no longer fun for bad guys.

 

That would be great, but I think this is more to check the validity of documentation like passports than to check criminal backgrounds.

 

I would imagine DHS runs the names on the manifest through the National Crime Information Database and that would be why we have seen people taken off in handcuffs on nearly every Carnival cruise. People who sail with outstanding warrants are not very smart.

 

We share that information with the Canadians and that is how they can easily exclude those with DUI convictions from sailing.

Edited November 9, 2016 by DebJ14

[easyboy]

Anything for improved security is fine with me.