The system for issuing commercial and citizen driver’s licenses must be more reliable due to current concerns about terrorism, identity theft, online authentication and highway safety, according to a year-long study of news related to crime and fraud in state motor vehicle offices nationwide.

In October 2002, the Center for Democracy and Technology called on the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to begin an index of cases of fraud at state agencies that issue driver’s licenses. The Washington, DC-based center was formed to advocate civil liberties on the Internet.

AAMVA said no index of that type had ever been created, so the Center for Democracy and Technology began tracking news stories about fraud and security breaches at state agencies.

“Once a week throughout 2003, we searched `Google News’ for stories from local and national papers on driver’s license fraud,” the Center said, adding: “Our worst fears were proven true.”

The main findings:

• The center found 23 cases of publicly reported fraud or lax security in 15 different states across the country.
• Thousands of fraudulent driver’s licenses were issued through bribed state employees in 2003.
• Dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of identity theft can be tied back to internal fraud and bad security practices.

According to the center, some cases were especially brazen:

The entire 11-person staff of the Newark, NJ, Department of Motor Vehicles office was fired after investigators determined fraud was so rampant that no one could be trusted. The state had multiple cases of fraud or theft. New Jersey has an ongoing investigation based on consistent concerns about the state agency, the center said.

An identify theft ring in Oregon was found with a CD-ROM full of Oregon drivers’ personal information, as well as casings and cards that could only have been taken from an Oregon Motor Vehicles Office. Officials said they could point to at least 40 cases of identity theft back to these thieves.

In Virginia, DMV clerks received bribes of up to $2,000 per license to provide more than 1,000 fraudulent licenses. Some of those seeking licenses were ushered to the front of the line.

Thieves used a forklift to break into a Utah DMV and steal the office safe and computer equipment. It is not know how much personal information was taken.

Indiana officials are still investigating an ever-deepening bribery ring that led to the fraudulent issuance of more than 1,000 licenses across the state.

A Pennsylvania state worker pleaded guilty to selling bogus commercial driver’s licenses to Iraqi nationals around the United States. No terrorism link was found.

Four Arkansas state employees were charged with bribery in cases mostly involving commercial licenses. One has pleaded guilty, along with an Arkansas resident who bribed officials.

Suggested solutions

“CDT believes that AAMVA’s new programs, as well as their recent anti-fraud and security symposia and best practice working groups, offer a beginning to address this difficult problem,” the group said. “Yet, based on our research and the ongoing concern that these cases are mostly seen as local problems, CDT believes that more public actions should be taken to ensure that it is adequately being addressed.”

Toward that end, the Center for Democracy and Technology said:

Congress should require the General Accounting Office to build an internal and external fraud and security index and rank the states and their improvements in each area. 

“Eventually, after the measures have been in place for a couple of years, federal highway funds should be tied to performance in this index,” the group said.

The federal government should get tough and raise the federal offense for a crime that affects nationwide security.

“For the most part, states have not done enough to deter bribery of the employees at state motor vehicle agencies,” the center said.

Congress should offer pilot grants for new technologies, programs and training aimed at rooting out fraud and improving physical security at state DMVs.

“Simply put, the driver’s license should never be the only form of ID used for a wide range of purposes from homeland security to online authentication to highway safety,” the center said.

--by Dick Larsen, senior editor

Dick Larsen can be reached at dick_larsen@landlinemag.com.