NCJ Number
188731
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2001 Pages: 109-114
Date Published
April 2001
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes how the Federal Witness Security Program protects those who testify for the State.
Abstract
The Federal Witness Security Program is administered through the U.S. Department of Justice and operated by the U.S. Marshals Service. In the field, case agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and local law enforcement develop a case and at some point identify someone as an important witness in the case who is in danger because of his/her testimony. This information is presented to the assisting U.S. attorney, and an application is completed to admit the witness into the program. The application is sent to the Justice Department's Office of the Enforcement Operations. There the threat assessment is reviewed. Those accepted into the program are required to change their identity and be relocated to another part of the country. They will not be allowed to associate with anyone from their past. Witnesses accepted into the program are typically involved in cases where they are testifying against members of a crime organization that has the network and personnel to track and injure or kill a witness. In addition to describing the selection process, this article explains how locations and jobs are decided for persons in the program, how people are released from the program when the threat is passed, whether official contact is maintained throughout the program, whether people voluntarily leave the program, whether the program has ever been compromised, what police chiefs and beat officers should know about the program, difficulties encountered in administering the program, how officers are chosen to work in the program, and the program's future.