DARLENE AVERICK: The mission here at ATF is to protect communities from violent criminals and criminal organizations. The Victim/Witness Assistance Program works hand in hand with our agents to make sure that our victims and witnesses stay safe, stay secure, and are able to testify.
REPORTER: More than 500 federal agents are here helping. This investigation is the top priority right now for the ATF.
DARLENE AVERICK: We deployed after the second bombing. My staff went out there to assist the victims. We got them into shelter, we got their food. We actually maintained the comradery with them, the support with them, so that the agents could do proper interviews, secure the safety of them.
Victims who receive their rights and services, they're going to go and feel comfortable to go to trial, to testify. You develop a community where they're going to feel comfortable and start trusting law enforcement.
WOMAN: You guys talked about the domestic violence victims, right?
DARLENE AVERICK: Yes.
WOMAN: That was a big one in witness intimidation?
DARLENE AVERICK: Yeah. We need to add more pieces of domestic violence in there.
WOMAN: Okay.
DARLENE AVERICK: When I came on to ATF in 2006, the Victim/Witness Assistance Program did not have any dedicated staff other than myself. Right now, we have three regional victim specialists and a victim specialist that actually works as our training coordinator making sure that our recruits, the new agents coming in, along with other things that they're learning, like explosives, like how to carry a gun, how to handle a gun, the Victim/Witness Program is in that basic training as well.
You can't make a violent crime go away. It will be part of them but doesn't have to be them. What this program does is provides a means for victims to get whole, a means for them to move forward from the violent crime.
We can't solve every problem, but you can help somebody get to that next step, that next stage of their life so that they can feel the hope of moving forward.
