After Sarah leaves, there is 15 minutes left on the clock until closing time, 11 bodies still on chairs in the room and the #60 up on the board. As I am holding #71 I start to think about ”Wanna Borrow a Jack”* when I hear my name called. I walk to the front of the room, take my place in one of the two chairs behind the curtain, the one in front of the camera seemed the most logical, but as I go to sit, Mr. Plump-shiny-face-head-and-dough-boy neck says I must not sit there, but in the one directly in his line of vision. I do as I am told. He asks me everything he already knows, my name, address, birth date, and by now I am also so ‘cooked’ I have no memory of whatever else he required. I’m certain I look to ill to travel or be recorded, but he tells me to now switch chairs for my picture. I can only imagine how I will look, but really don’t care. He takes picture #1. Asks if I want another. Figure that is a hint. Pick my head up and take another. It is in all probability a wait of 5 seconds before he hands me a plasticized credit card sized driver’s license. I look down at it. In big, blazon lettering across the front is the word: Temporary. I look at him with incredulity, “What’s this”? His reply: “Oh we’ll mail you the permanent one”. What is this I ask. No Answer. It’s closing time. I figured I must have really p@*%^d Miss-un-nice-lady-off and she is having me pay her dues. At home I look on the internet and this is the reason for a temp PA D L:
To further mitigate the risk for fraud, including identity theft, PennDOT issues temporary driver’s licenses and photo identification cards, which are valid for 15 days, to individuals who have never held a Pennsylvania driver’s license or photo ID, i.e. new drivers, new photo ID card holders and new residents. During that 15-day period, PennDOT utilizes state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to validate the individual’s photograph does not match another photograph in our database under a different name(s). The temporary DL/photo ID card looks the same as the current DL/photo ID card, except the blue and yellow banners are gray, the word ” temporary” is printed in red across the front and the expiry date is outlined in red. The product can be used by any business to validate name, age, address, etc., just as a permanent DL/Photo ID card.
In addition, PennDOT also uses facial recognition for the same purpose when an individual has their photo taken for their driver’s license/identification card renewal. While Pennsylvania driver’s licenses/photo ID cards have contained the same digital photo and demographic data since 1994, facial recognition takes the digital photo captured at the photo center and establishes an algorithm based on an individual’s facial features. It utilizes this algorithm to compare an individuals photo to all the other photos in PennDOT’s database. Facial recognition identifies similar photos as possible matches and PennDOT reviews the possible matches to determine if potential fraud has occurred. If PennDOT determines there needs to be a further investigation, then and only then, does PennDOT turn it over to the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) for further investigation. Although facial recognition utilizes “biometrics” in its broadest sense, it does not uniquely identify a person like other biometric measures, i.e. fingerprints and DNA.
Begs the question: why not use Fingerprints
* by J.P McEvoy from the book ‘Charlie Would Have Loved This.