If you could create a whole new identity for yourself, who would you be? What would be your new name or occupation? Where would you live? Would you change your name to Rosco and run away with the circus? Would you become a dance instructor in Florida or a pastry chef in Seattle? For those people who enter the Federal Witness Security Program, these questions are not just idle musings.

The Federal Witness Security Program was set up in 1970 to provide new identities for witnesses who risk their lives to testify in criminal cases. Over the past 35 years, around 7,500 witnesses (and almost 10,000 family members) have been given new identities and new locations by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Before a person is absorbed into the Program, he or she must settle any debts and take care of any oth…