The bill also calls for adding a feature to licenses that would be visible only under ultraviolet light and checking Social Security numbers with a Social Security Administration database. It also bars anyone from getting both a driver's license and a state ID card. Thieves frequently steal Social Security numbers and other identification and create false identities for themselves. They can get a driver's license or state identification card made in the victim's name by producing that identification. One person had 40 licenses issued by the Department of Revenue.
Thieves also use counterfeit licenses to dupe bank tellers and others.
A working group established by the division recommended that any legislation address both problems. It is made up of representatives of financial institutions and financial services organizations, retail merchants, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and motor vehicle administrators. The Motor Vehicle Division doesn't have statistics on the number of bogus licenses it may have issued, said Aurora Ruiz-Hernandez, senior director of the Motor Vehicle Business Group. But nationally, there were 25,845 reported victims of identity theft in 2000, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The facial recognition system is expected to go into operation in the summer of 2002, said Barbara Walker, executive director of the Independent Bankers of Colorado.