There were a few protected witnesses before WITSEC actually began. That means that witnesses who have remained in it and followed all the rules-more on that later-have not been harmed as a result of testifying. According to the government officials in charge of the program, WITSEC has a 100-percent success rate. In 2012, the reported cost of keeping WITSEC running was about $10 million a year. Thousands of people have been moved as part of the Witness Protection Program.īetween witnesses and their families, around 19,000 people have been moved thanks to the program. He’s also how we know a lot of what we know about mysterious program-he co-wrote a book titled WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program. Shur worked for the Justice Department at the time he was the head of the Witness Security Program for around 25 years and was instrumental in turning it into what it is today. At the time, members of the mafia were known to kill witnesses in advance of, or after, testifying. In part, the Act said that the government would protect witnesses. The Witness Protection Program began as a result of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. In 2013, their then-associate director for operations David Harlow explained, “No one knows what we do to protect witnesses, and it’s good for us.” 3. WITSEC is run not by the FBI, but by the U.S. The Witness Protection Program is officially known as the Witness Security Program, or WITSEC. They would help witnesses get it, but government money would not be used for it.

As of the late '90s, it became the policy to not provide plastic surgery for witnesses. One unnamed participant was given a psychologist-suggested penis surgery-not to disguise his identity, but because he was depressed and needed a self-esteem boost in order to testify. To entice mobster Aladena Fratianno to testify in the late 1970s, the program paid for his wife’s surgery, including breast implants and a facelift. The witness protection program used to provide plastic surgery for witnesses.

Witness protection program rules