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twitterDMV making identity thieves’ faces their own worst enemies
Leila Navidi
Sgt. Thomas Newsome, who works in the Compliance Enforcement Division at the Department of Motor Vehicles, shows a month’s worth of identity fraud cases flagged by facial recognition software. With the technology, Newsome’s team has made 84 arrests for identity theft since January.
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun coverage
Beyond the Sun
Armed investigators wearing brass badges at the Department of Motor Vehicles building on West Flamingo Road scan the thousands of driver’s license photos Nevadans smile for every day, looking for fraud.
Every week, with help from a computerized facial recognition program, they catch dozens of people attempting to get licenses in someone else’s name, though few of these identity-theft artists approach the current record holder — a man who had 38 licenses, in 38 names.
The man, and his many identities, is now the subject of a Secret Service investigation, said Thomas Newsome, a sergeant in the DMV compliance enforcement division. Since January, Newsome and fellow DMV investigators have arrested 84 people on identity theft and fraud charges. They have 88 additional arrest warrants out, and dozens of open cases, piling up in manila folders on their desks.
This is the post-9/11 DMV — that purgatorial, bureaucratic world of waiting lines, records and photos — re-envisioned as a front line in the war on terror. Ever since hijackers boarded airplanes carrying state ID cards — including Florida, New Jersey and Virginia — some obtained fraudulently, there’s been increased scrutiny of the DMV process; who gets licenses, and how, and how many.
The Nevada DMV fraud investigation unit was formed in 2003, in part as a response to 9/11. And while it’s questionable whether the six fraud investigators working under Newsome today are halting would-be terrorists, it’s clear they’re finding a good number of identity thieves.
On a typical day, DMV investigators catch eight to 10 people trying to get licenses with false names or stolen identities. Some are just teenagers trying to get a 21-year-old’s license. Others are illegal immigrants attempting to pose as U.S. citizens. And some are felons trying to bury prior bad acts, or criminals trying to commit new crimes under assumed identities.
One guy applied for a license with a stolen Mexican birth certificate, hopeful his rebirth as a foreign national would conceal his U.S. status as a sex offender. Another guy was caught after using the same stolen ID for 35 years, even paying his victim’s child support to avoid capture. A third guy applied for a new license so he could continue to commit large-scale check fraud — he confessed to stealing tens of thousands of dollars in a multistate crime spree, Newsome said.
In the past, DMV investigators had to rely on tips and suspicious documents to identify fraud. Facial recognition software has changed that. The computer program can scan roughly 1.6 million photos in the Nevada DMV database for similarities in the same time it takes for an investigator to sip coffee, if not faster.
Every evening, the facial recognition software cross-checks DMV photos taken that day (3,000 or 4,000 on average) against the databank of ID and license pictures, using an algorithm to detect facial similarities through features: The distance from chin to lip, from eye to nose, and so on. If the program finds a similar face in the records, it’s flagged for a DMV employee to review the following morning.
There are on average 200 possible matches to review every morning. A particularly generic face may look like 15 others, and so each match must be sorted through for siblings, twins and look-alikes. Sometimes there are matches within the matches. And every match is a new case.
In March, three months after the facial recognition system was launched in Southern Nevada, the number of ID fraud arrests had more than doubled from the same period in 2008, and the number of licenses and ID cards canceled for fraud had tripled. In the past seven months, DMV investigators have opened just over 900 fraud cases, and continue to open a few dozen every month.
Nevada is one of 31 states using the facial recognition software developed by Connecticut-based L-1 Identity Solutions, a company spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a second computer system is at work, one that checks photos as they’re being taken. Come in for a new photo, and the DMV employee behind the camera will compare the latest picture with prior photos on record. If the faces don’t match, there’s a chance someone isn’t who they say they are.
Local law enforcement agencies, like the U.S. Marshals or Metro Police, sometimes give DMV investigators photos of people they’re looking for — a match can determine the suspect’s identity, or whether they have a false ID.
When the facial recognition software was first installed, DMV investigators ran photos of some of the country’s most wanted criminals through the database. They didn’t get any hits, but they keep checking.
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Stories like these should not be printed. Why let the criminals know how you are catching them when you can just keep quietly catching them? All printing articles like this will do is make them go to another state to steal the Identity. For the DMV to share this info is counter-productive to the program with no benefits at all. Leave it to our government to inform the enemy (in this case the identity thieves) of just how they are getting caught so they can figure a way around it. Way to go DMV, ruin a successful program so you can brag a little and ask for more money. What a bunch of dolts.
This hints of a 1984 big brother.....
It seems OK for now, but you know that one day they will have these devices at every street corner.
I think this is great and I hope they expand the program to work with immigration enforcement. We all know those illegals are using the SS numbers of American Citizens to obtain benefits and steal from the system. I suspect that most of the people stealing ID's are illegal or stealing the ID's for the illegals. This kind of program needs to be expanded. Only American citizens should be allowed to access American Benefits and privileges.
I love it! After all, if you have nothing to hide it's not going to inconvenience you in the least. Another system I would be in favor of would be DNA typing of every individual at birth with results sent into an international database. There couldn't be a better identification and/or crime-prevention tool that that, could there?
sounds like they go after these guys after the fact.why not bust them at the moment they're doing the illegal id application.the horses' already out of the barn b 4 these sherlock holmes knows a crimes been committed.whats the old sayin,"an ounce of preventions better then a pound of cure".sounds like it could b applied here.
What kills because of this is now the 5-10 business day wait you now must take if you happen to lose your license. I had the unfortunate opportunity to walk into the DMV last week and spend the 2 hours waiting to get a number and another 3 hours of wait time to file paperwork to only be told to wait in another hour long line to take my picture only to find out - oh yeah you don't get your license immediately any more - you have to wait for it in the mail. In the mean time you get to carry around your birth certificate or passport and this piece of paper saying you can drive.
It's a good way to catch illegals and SEND THEM BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM!!
We must not act like facial recognition is some new technology. It's been around for years. It's the first time I've ever since it in a DMV when I moved here though. It's still some pretty cool technology.
I wish all states did this.
This is always the focus of news day in and day out, example Sun names not one person or case involved in criminal behavior in prive case. Planet Hollywood fined largest amount in Nevada History. Question Did it ever happened. No one was arrested. Bar reopens 30 days latter. Folks you are being lied to everyday. ID theft is sooo bad, Yet we have illegals working every jop, so what is the point. Fooollls The Mexicans on the strip handing out porn are illegal, they are taking jops away from Americans who would love doing noithing but hand out porn.
one step closer to the mark of the beast
"...if you have nothing to hide it's not going to inconvenience you in the least..."
Anytime I hear "nothing to hide", it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. You frequently hear these words as someone justifies taking away or diminishing your civil rights.
On a more positive note, I don't think this is the case in this situation.
The only people that should feel threatened by this technology is the identity theives, the illegals, and the criminals with something to hide.
It is the DMV's responsibility to make sure, to the best of their ability, that they have verified the identity of the people they are issuing ID's to. To not use this technology would be irresponsible.
Now put this equipment in the welfare office and quit giving food stamps and tax payer money to illegals! The invaders are destroying the American culture. They are stealing from each and every American Tax payer and should all be deported.
"This hints of a 1984 big brother..... It seems OK for now, but you know that one day they will have these devices at every street corner."
It already is on a bunch of street corners - this being Las Vegas, I'm sure you've walked into a casino. I'm sure that by the time you park your car in the parking garage or when you walk in the front doors, the Casino has the technology to ID your car or your face against their own database. They're not interested in thugs or criminals, just card cheats and the like.
no, these stories SHOULD be printed to get the word out to the crooks that this avenue is closed.
Maybe we should put this on every street corner. It would be extremely hard to get away with a violent crime when we know where Demarvis is going every time he moves his felonious ass.
Glad to see there is some enforcement out there on identity thieves.... keep it up.
This reminds me of the scenes in "The Day of the Jackal" (1973) when the assassin (Edward Fox) searches a graveyard for a name he can use for a new identity and later pickpockets a wallet of a man at a train station who looks similar to him so that he can use that man's ID cards.
Rock and Man... more like Minority Report when Cruise is walking through stores and is addressed by name from "eye" recognition...
How scary is this? EEK!
Most criminals don't read the paper, so they won't see this story. I hope they will all eventually get caught, so they have to face the people they defrauded in court.
Indythinker: I'll have to see Minority Report again. There's a scene in the 1960's movie "Operation Crossbow" where the Germans at a V-2 factory suspect that there might be Allied spies in their midst. They start the laborious task of checking each worker's badge with the information they have on file. When they check George Peppard's name the picture they have on file has a different face--so they know he's a spy.