Absolutely. I think this is a very important point, because this is exactly the perception that seems to have been in the media over the last little while.
As I said, the filtering process starts at the outset, before we even use the person as an agent—I've explained that assessment—and continues into admission into the program. It is very clearly explained in the protective agreement and the letters of acknowledgement between us and the human source as to abstaining from any criminal activity, abstaining from drugs, abstaining from any activity that would make him unsuitable and put him outside of the section 7 criteria of the Witness Protection Program Act.
Once they're in the witness protection program, any criminal history they had prior to getting into the program follows them. If they had convictions of drugs, assaults, robberies, whatever it may be, it follows them to the new identity. The other thing is that any time they come into contact with the police we are notified. As soon as a police officer checks them, our witness protection coordinator's office will ring and we are able to go on the system to see that they've been checked by police. We can then inquire as to why and we'll know if they're under a charge.
This perception that there is a bubble within which a person in the witness protection program lives is completely false. They're not in any kind of bubble that allows them immunity from committing crimes. They are subject to all the laws of the country, as anybody else is. Their criminal record follows them. If they commit a crime, they will leave evidence behind. Their fingerprints don't change. Their DNA doesn't change. They will be investigated, and they will be prosecuted. They will go to jail, just like anybody else does. The fact that they're in the program does not allow them to hide. That's the perception that seems to be out there.