Orleans Parish has no witness protection program.  The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office only offers a Victim Assistance Program, but the city is receiving help from the federal government.

“The single most important issue in prosecuting a violent crime case is continuing the cooperation of victims and witnesses,” Val Solino, executive assistant district attorney, said

Since the city doesn’t have a witness protection program, Solino explains what they can offer with the Victims Assistance Program: “Witnesses and victims who need assistance come to our attention and we provide them what we can. What we can provide is sympathy, compassion, safe harbor, assistance with food if they need it.”

WWL-TV

Witness protection is still suffering in New Orleans.

The program has seven victim witness advocates on staff, and, since 2006, they’ve provided short-term help for crime victims and witnesses through $260,000 in grant funding.

But that money is already spent.

"One of the things that we explain to them is that we really are limited in the protective services that we can offer," Solino said.

The office gives witnesses rides to a relative’s house to get out of harm’s way or food if someone needs it.  Much of the office funding was spent bringing Katrina evacuees back to Louisiana to testify in court.

"I know there are some people within the District Attorney's Office that work with victims and witnesses, but I don't think that we have enough and I don't think that they're all necessarily properly trained," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.           

The Department of Justice is stepping in to help that part of the equation with Quinn Smith and Shane Jones, two new victim advocates hired by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to help with the increasing number of federal cases and to help train the Orleans Parish Victims Advocates.

"They have seven, they have seven,” said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. “We've basically got one, until now, with two support and we've been successful."

"I've only been here about 30 days and we've already identified some systems that we're going to use and we're going to put in place," said Smith who is a former police officer.

"If you don't maintain contact, you don't know who they are, who their families are, who they associate with, where they work, and maintain that contact with them about the proceedings, you're not going to have their trust and you're certainly not going to be able to have their cooperation and you're not going to be able to protect them," Letten said.

They’re techniques that have worked for the federal government across the country; techniques that could soon work in New Orleans.