Secrets of the Witness Protection Program. Developed by Justice Department employee Gerald Shur and beginning in 1. Federal Witness Protection Program—or Witness Security Program (WITSEC)—has provided safe harbor for over 1. It was WITSEC and the promise of a government- subsidized hiding place that convinced several “made” men of the mafia to turn their backs on organized crime and help prosecutors convict numerous leaders, from John Gotti to several members of the Lucchese family. The California Witness Relocation and Assistance Program (CalWRAP) provides protection of witnesses and their families, friends, or associates who are endangered due to ongoing or anticipated testimony in gang, organized crime, human trafficking, or narcotic. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Web Site. Victim Assistance and Witness Protection The impact of crime on the people affected by it can be profound. Victims may suffer from physical, mental, emotional and financial harm, from which some may never. The witness protection program in Italy has sometimes come under criticism for failing to properly protect certain witnesses. The state-run programs provide less extensive protections than the federal program. They also cannot hold or have as many people. The Oldest & Most Versatile Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the United States. The Witness Security Program was authorized by the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and amended by the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of. Inside-Outside The Federal Witness Protection Program. True story book reviews. Susan Knisely 1,122 views. Witsec Whistleblowers exposing the Federal Witness Protection Program, Portland, OR. Investigative Journalist: Harvesting the Whistleblower. Bob Levin is an Undercover Investigative Journalist and former member of the FBI who worked major cases. Federal Witness Protection Program The federal Witness Security Program, known by the acronym WITSEC, provides witnesses and their families with protective services to ensure their health, safety, and security. Protecting whistleblowers from the dangerous criminals they implicate doesn’t come cheap. By some estimates, the government spends upwards of $1. For decades no law enforcement program has been as cloaked in controversy and mystery as the Federal Witness Protection Program. Now, for the first time, Gerald Shur, the man credited with the creation of WITSEC, teams with acclaimed investigative journalist Pete Earley to tell the inside story of. Witness protection has been universally recognized as one of the most important tools law enforcement has at its disposal to combat criminal activity. The Federal Witness Protection Program=s (FWPP) primary purpose is to promote law enforcement by facilitating. For over 30 years, the US Marshals Service has been operating the WITSEC program. But witnesses with information so provocative their life is at risk make for strong cases: Trials involving WITSEC have an 8. The U. S. Marshals assigned with forging new identities for these individuals are notoriously guarded and rarely speak on the record about program specifics. But that hasn’t stopped bits of information from leaking out. With author Pete Earley, Shur co- wrote a book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program, on his career; over the years, various WITSEC enlistees have spoken to media about the stress of assuming new identities. Here’s as much detail about the program you’re going to get without finding yourself in a considerable amount of trouble. THEY HAVE ORIENTATION. For years, WITSEC was plagued by a haphazard method of educating enrollees on what was required of them and what they might expect from being relocated and assigned a new name. In some cases, witnesses waited months for new birth certificates or social security numbers. To help streamline the process, the Marshals instituted a clearinghouse in 1. Washington, D. C. The WITSEC Safesite and Orientation Center can house up to six families at a time; visitors are driven there in vehicles with blacked- out windows and locked in separate rooms to ensure they don’t see one another. If trouble happens to follow, the site can also withstand bomb blasts. Owing to the trauma of upending their lives, psychological counseling is available. Within two weeks, they’re shown video of their new location. THEY’RE MOSTLY CRIMINALS. The movie trope of an innocent man or woman caught up in criminal crossfire or as an unwilling party to illegal dealings is a rare event in the real world. Shur estimated that less than 5 percent of relocated witnesses are completely free of any wrongdoing; the vast majority are career hoods looking to be absolved of charges for their own activities and protected from retribution. Different sources put the recidivism rate for WITSEC members at anywhere between 1. In 1. 99. 5, Portland police chief Michael Chitwood complained that Maine had become a “dumping ground” for criminals in the program: Local law enforcement is not informed when a criminal has been dropped off in their territory and often fear they can bring an entire network of illegal activity into an area. THEY SOMETIMES KEEP THEIR FIRST NAME. Shur—who ran the program for more than 2. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in Washington and continued as a consultant after retirement—disclosed in WITSEC that relocated witnesses were not usually given totally unfamiliar new names. To help them acclimate to their new identity, Shur usually allowed them to keep the same first name and even their initials. In addition to reacting when someone addressed them, witnesses could also catch themselves signing their old name before it was too late. Children learning their new last names are sometimes told to practice writing it. PARENTS ASK FOR BETTER GRADES FOR THEIR KIDS. WITSEC is responsible for assigning new social security numbers, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates to qualifying witnesses and their families. If a witness has children, it means school records will need to be modified so educators can see grades from earlier enrollment. Initially, a Washington area school agreed to help by getting redacted records and transferring grades and teacher notes into a new file. While the program usually keeps the same marks, Shur recalled that some parents asked him to improve their children's grades. THEY USED TO GET GREAT PERKS—LIKE BREAST IMPLANTS. In the 1. 97. 0s and 1. WITSEC was having unprecedented success damaging the infrastructure of the mafia. Major players were testifying against bosses knowing they could start over somewhere else. Initially, the government was so keen on their continued participation—trials could go on for years—that they indulged some unnecessary expenses. Former mob hitman Aladena Fratianno requested (and got) the United States to pay for his wife’s breast implants, facelift, and dental work. Another had a psychologist backing his claim of poor self- esteem issues, and the government bought him a penile implant. DIVORCED SPOUSES HAD KIDS HIDDEN FROM THEM. In a landmark case that had far- reaching effects on WITSEC, Thomas Leonhard went public in the early 1. Because his ex- wife was married to a protected government witness, Leonhard (who had visitation rights) was not allowed to see their daughter on the grounds that her location and new identity would be compromised. When he filed for and was granted full custody, WITSEC officials still refused to disclose her location. The ensuing publicity led to an amendment in 1. WITSEC protocol that needs to take joint custody into account when relocating children—although ex- spouses still found it difficult to see their child via a circuitous airplane route under an alias. One father wondered whether he would ever be able to see his daughter’s graduation or wedding when she got older. A non- program parent with visitation rights must now agree to have the child relocated. If they refuse and win full custody, the child will not be allowed to remain in their new identity. THE MONEY DOESN’T LAST FOREVER. WITSEC typically pays for witness housing in their new region, new furnishings, and a “salary” based on the cost of living in any given area. According to Shur, that amount was dependent on local economics and the size of the family. On average, members receive roughly $6. At the height of the organized crime offensive, the Justice Department paid out as much as $1 million to witnesses who were testifying over long periods of time. CRIMINALS HAVE USED IT TO COMMIT MORE CRIMES. Law enforcement officials are quick to clarify that WITSEC is not a rehabilitation program: When career criminals who have never earned an honest living and have no job skills enter the workforce, their thoughts can—and often do—turn to illegal activity knowing their status will make it harder to face any consequences. Shur noted that a handful of witnesses used one new identity to run up significant debt, then told Marshals they’d been spotted by a rival and feared retribution. With another new name and city, they were able to flee creditors successfully—and collect more cost- of- living money from WITSEC. At one point, 3. 2 witnesses had collectively racked up $7. THEY HAVE TO LIE TO NEW SPOUSES. Getting married as a protected witness means having to do the one thing no partner should be expected to do: lie. WITSEC members are told not to divulge their prior identity to new spouses in case the relationship ever turns sour and the secret is revealed out of spite. When infamous mobster Henry Hill was in the program, he married Sherry Anders in 1. Anders had no idea Hill, who was going by the name “Martin Lewis,” had seen more than his share of dead bodies—and happened to still be married under his real name, making her an unwitting party to bigamy. STATES HAVE THEIR OWN PROGRAMS. WITSEC is a federal program focused on making big cases against criminal enterprises with an accompanying credible threat to a witness’s life. But for many eyewitnesses who have observed gang killings or other street- level crime, it’s not likely the government is going to intervene. Instead, several regions have programs that offer relocation during and in the months immediately following trials. In Detroit, Project Safeguard provides lodging and food through private funding; Baltimore is considering a similar program, with officials hoping Congress will approve legislative spending for smaller- scale protection efforts. PRISONERS CAN HAVE PERKS, TOO. While WITSEC can offer suspended sentences to cooperating witnesses, some will still have to serve time in prison. To help incentivize these individuals, WITSEC can arrange for privileges far beyond the norm for an inmate. In 1. 99. 6, the Pittsburgh Post- Gazetterevealed protected witnesses in custody enjoyed live lobsters and pig roasts via an anonymous ordering system at a commissary; they were also granted unlimited phone calls. Some prisoners used the latter to set up criminal activities or run telephonic credit card scams on the outside. YOU CAN LEAVE ANYTIME—BUT YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE. The U. S. Marshals are proud to say that not a single person has been hurt or killed while under their protection in the WITSEC program. Unfortunately, not all witnesses take the threat on their lives seriously. Some have left the program of their own volition or have broken the rules about returning to high- risk areas. Shur recalled the case of Daniel La. Polla, a witness who decided to ignore the program's warnings and return home for a funeral. His home was rigged to blow to pieces as soon as he turned the doorknob. You Are Now Under Witness Protection. By entering the Witness Protection Program, you’re agreeing to completely cut ties with the old you. You may have been Jon Richards in your past life, but now you’re Ron Jichards. You may have had a wife, but now you have a “gife.” You may have driven a Camry, but now you’re riding a bicycle. We’re not made of money. You’ve committed to giving testimony that will put your life in grave danger, and in exchange our U. S. Marshalls pledge to take a bullet in any non- vital organ to save your life. We will also provide you with a new passport, a new social- security card, a new driver’s license, and, as part of a little promotion we’re running through the end of August, a beautiful new Kenneth Cole wallet. Naturally, you have questions about embarking on your new life: Will you ever be able to resume your old identity? What happens to your Netflix queue? Unfortunately, both answers probably aren’t what you want to hear. We realize there’s also a decent chance you’re in the midst of a Fruit- of- the- Month Club. As much as we’d like to forward the remaining fruit to you, this is one of the main ways by which witnesses are tracked down and killed. The best we can do is to promise that it’ll get eaten. Filling out the paperwork to enter the program is merely the first step on the path to anonymity. The next “costuming” phase is critical and, dare we say, liberating. While we take every precaution to relocate you to a part of the country where someone is least likely to recognize and murder you, we can’t take any chances. Believe us, when you’re at the supermarket and bump into an organized- crime member who’s hunting you down, you’ll be very happy you’re wearing your Kareem Abdul- Jabbar disguise. Under no circumstances are you allowed to return to the town where you once lived or to contact anyone from your past life. You may think there’s no harm in sending a quick smiley- face text to an old friend, until a few hours later when there’s a frowny- faced knife in your stomach. Witnesses who’ve had the same dentist for their whole lives often can’t bear to start all over again, so they make the mistake of booking an appointment for a cleaning under their new name, and hey, who’s the new hygienist with the goatee? Bang, you’re dead. These days, with the Internet, it’s even more difficult to completely erase someone’s identity. You “checking into the Witness Protection Processing Center” on Facebook a few minutes ago is the perfect example of why it’s difficult. We will do everything we can to protect you, but we also have to take breaks and stuff, so be vigilant and keep your eyes open for people trying to kill you. Ask smart questions like: Why is that school kid clutching that brown paper bag? Why is that old lady’s mesh bag making a barking sound? Why does that man’s purse look so full? And why is he carrying a purse, especially with those shoes? Talk about killing people. You should always be prepared for the moment when someone from your past life sees you and calls out your real name. It could be a high- school friend or your mom; either way, just politely tip the brim of your sombrero toward them, straighten your mustache, and be on your way. You’ll need to forgo past hobbies. If you like bowling, for example, these people will be scouring every alley in the country trying to track you down. If you like doing gymnastics, there will be eyes on every pommel horse from here to San Diego. As a further precaution, our behavioral specialists will also assist you in eliminating any distinguishing traits and habits of your old self, like that weird double sneeze you do. It’s probably a good time to try out some new walks, too. Something a little sexier wouldn’t hurt. You’ll also need a haircut—not a witness protection thing, more of a really helpful observation. Remember, this isn’t just a fresh start for you; it’s a fresh start for your family, too. Specifically, for three of them. We don’t have the resources to protect more than that, so it’s time to make some difficult decisions about who might be O. K. Maybe one of them knows karate? Just spitballing. In the end, will you be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life wondering if your time is up? The short answer is yes. The long answer is definitely yes. The truth is, there’s a bull’s- eye on your back, and committing to this new life is your best shot at staying alive. And while you may never be able to remove that bull’s- eye, you can certainly cover it up with a Buzz Lightyear spacesuit and jetpack. Which we totally have. Illustration by Richard Mc.
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