Driver’s license issuance to change April 19

New driver's licenses with additional security features will be coming to Iowa on April 19, along with a change in issuance procedures.

Beginning with that date, the Iowa Department of Transportation will issue only temporary driver's licenses at the state's 81 county treasurer offices and 19 DOT driver's license stations. A new final driver's license will be issued at a centralized state facility and be mailed to the driver within two weeks.

DOT officials call the procedure “central issuance. ” They say it's necessary to to thwart driver's license counterfeiters and identity thieves. Twenty-two other states already use central issuance, according to DOT officials.

A central security feature being implemented by the DOT is an image verification process that compares an applicant's photo with other photos's in the DOT's digital image database, looking for matches.

If the applicant's photo matches an existing photo in the DOT database, the application is referred to a fraud investigator who decides if the driver's license may be delivered, or should be withheld for investigation and/or prosecution.

“The real risk is that a person will get a driver's license or ID that has his or her photo on it, but is in another person's name or a false name,” said Kim Snook, director of the DOT's Office of Driver Services. “Central issuance reduces that risk.”

DOT officials say the system also will reduce the potential for the theft of printers and materials to make driver's licenses, by placing everything in a secure central facility. It will allow for production of driver's licenses with more sophisticated security features.

State officials are not concerned about the dangers that mailed driver's licenses will be intercepted by the wrong party. They say other identification documents such as credit cards, car titles, birth certificates are also delivered by mail. The driver's licenses will be mailed in unmarked envelopes.

The same procedures that will apply to driver's licenses will apply to state identification cards,