IDOT’s facial recognition software is reducing fraud

Granted, that driver's license photo may not be your best look, but take some comfort in knowing it is proof positive you are who you say you are.

Unless you're saying you are someone else.

Or someone else is saying they are you.

No matter. Iowa's 2-year-old, $1.4 million high-tech computer software - similar to what you see on TV's “CSI” shows - likely will match your photo to any of the roughly 2 million images in the Iowa Department of Transportation database.

That's pretty much where the CSI similarity ends, said Kelly Hamilton, an Office of Motor Vehicle Enforcement investigator for eight years.

“On CSI, once they pop up onto the screen, they're guilty,” she said.

In real life, that's where Hamilton and other investigators go to work. Up to 80 images per day are flagged - some because they don't match earlier photos in the DOT database.

That may be because of aging or weight loss or gain, said Kim Snook, director of the Office of Driver Services. In other cases, the match can be traced to an identical twin or other sibling.

That doesn't rule out fraud, said Maj. Paul Steier, an Office of Motor Vehicle Enforcement investigator. People often use family members' identities - including dead relatives - to obtain driver's licenses.

Such cases are assigned to investigators, like Hamilton, who are weapon-carrying, law enforcement academy-graduated, sworn peace officers. She gets about five to 10 cases a day. They may be underage college students who want to get into bars, illegal immigrants or money launderers. In other cases, getting a driver's license is the starting point for getting benefits - welfare, unemployment compensation while working, college financial aid - or to avoid paying child support.

“One guy in Cedar Rapids told me ‘You're the only thing standing between me and my new life,' ” said Steier, who previously worked in Cedar Rapids. The man had married, bought property and obtained a commercial driver's license under his new identity. Steier's discovery threatened all of that. “He thought that past was gone.”

Steier has worked cases involving foreign nationals, credit card schemes, government benefit scams and the Russian mafia.

Charges can range from DOT administrative actions and misdemeanors for minors attempting to get a valid 21-year-old ID to felonies for someone using a false identity to obtain government benefits, open bank accounts or buy property.

In many cases, suspects admit their attempt to falsely obtain a license. However, Hamilton said, not all cases end peacefully.

As they look into a case, investigators don't always know if they are dealing with a perpetrator of identity theft or a victim.

“You don't always know whether it's the good guy or the bad guy when you knock on the door,” Steier said. “So you have to be prepared for anything.”

Snook believes image verification, combined with Iowa's move to central issuance in April, has reduced fraud attempts. Rather than get a “hard license” at the driver's license station, now Iowans get a 30-day paper license. That gives the department time to verify identity before issuing a plastic license.

Lisa Hennessey, supervisor of the Cedar Rapids driver's license station, emphasizes that these processes benefit law-abiding Iowans.

“We've had kids come in to get their first licenses and find they're already in the system,” because someone else is using their Social Security numbers, she said.

“If you're a victim, it's very frustrating,” said Steier, who calls image verification a proactive law enforcement tool because “you don't know how many crimes you are preventing by stopping this.”

Hennessey's quick to say that the image verification process isn't Orwellian.

“Big government is not doing things with these images that we shouldn't be doing,” she said. “We want to make sure that when we issue that license, it's going to the person that should be getting it and that they should be getting a license.”