After much debate, it is settled -- the driver's license is accepted as the nation's de facto ID card. And in that role, it should be more secure than it is.

Drivers often secure multiple drivers' licenses to conceal out-of-state criminal convictions and traffic violations. And since four of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks easily obtained fraudulent drivers' licenses, securing the credential has become a must.
So now what?

Developing a National Standard
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) assembled a task force to create a consensus on how states should prevent or detect fraudulent use of the credential. Congress has introduced a number of bills proposing stronger federal requirements for drivers' licenses, but a federal solution may not be imminent.

In the interim, states are taking steps they hope will align with whatever guidelines are developed.

AAMVA has convened more than a dozen working groups that include representatives from the National Governors Association (NGA), the National Council of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments and biometric technology vendors. The groups expect to nail down some guidelines by mid-2003.

Some things to consider in developing a more secure driver's license system include card features -- such as biometrics, two-dimensional bar codes or holograms -- as well as documentation states should require from an applicant as acceptable identification, how to verify a person's identity, and how to develop a system to compare credentials and individuals. All are questions AAMVA is considering.

"We're addressing a lot of the things we can address first before we hop on that biometric train," said Betty Serian, chair of AAMVA's Task Force on ID Security. "We want to bring about uniformity, but do that so jurisdictions have time to consider the uniform standards and implement them."

But the Task Force on ID Security is too cautious, according to Shane Ham, senior policy analyst with the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). "Really what they're doing is expanding into a nationwide level something the states have been doing rather piecemeal with the magnetic stripes and the 2-D barcodes," he said.

It's AAMVA's reluctance to embrace biometrics that has PPI's dander up. "They are doing some stuff that is exactly the right thing to do," Ham said. "But in general, they are sort of boldly rushing into the 20th century."

States Forge Ahead
As both working groups and the feds try to decide on specifications for driver's license security, most states are moving toward a more secure credential on their own, perhaps setting the standards as they go.

Twenty-one states enacted new laws, and more than 20 others have introduced legislation making it more difficult to obtain a license. The few states that didn't previously require digital images on drivers' licenses began doing so in late 2002.

When discussing minimum standards, requiring a digital photo on each license tops the list. "That is probably the minimum threshold everyone has or is getting," Serian said.

With digital photos comes the capability of scanning the images with facial recognition software to check for duplicates, and later, the ability to trade information with other states. That's already on the drawing board in some areas, said Thom Rubel, director of state information technology policy for NGA, who added that Pennsylvania and neighboring states have talked about sharing digital photos.

"What you're going to want to consider is long-term sharing," Rubel said. "Really, right now, just the digitized photo is where most of them have gone just so they can share that."

Biometric Technology
Experts say states inevitably will employ biometric technology for searching and verification purposes ? and some already have.

Some of the biometric solutions being considered are face