Wisconsin’s driver’s licenses just got a little more secure — the most secure in the country, actually.
The Department of Motor Vehicles, through Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation, designed a new driver’s license because Wisconsin’s current vendor contract was expiring, and the department decided to upgrade, DMV Director Ann Perry said.
“With a new vendor, we had the opportunity to upgrade the security features,” Perry said in an email to The Badger Herald. “Wisconsin’s new [driver’s license] design will have the most advanced security features currently available in the United States.”
The security features include having black and white photos instead of color and having those photos integrated into a solid card instead of being “applied” in a top or middle layer, Perry said.
Perry said current Wisconsin IDs don’t have any specific security issues, but as soon as a card is distributed, fraud prevention becomes a problem.
Previous IDs were easier to tamper with, Perry said, because the photos were applied in that top or middle layer. On the new IDs, a laser will engrave the black and white photo onto a high-quality polycarbonate card, Perry said.
All in all, the process creates two high-definition, high-contrast images.
“The black and white laser-engraved image helps to focus on key facial features without the distraction or distortion of color,” Perry said. “This makes the card much more difficult to counterfeit.”
Making the card difficult to counterfeit means fake IDs from Wisconsin will be even more difficult to produce.
But Madison Police Department Officer Mike Barcheski said they don’t often come across fake IDs from Wisconsin.
“[The new licenses] might make it easier for some bar staff to identify what’s real and what’s not, but often times when I’m seeing people using fake IDs, they’re not necessarily using Wisconsin IDs,” Barcheski said. “They’re often from other states.”
Barcheski said even though the use of fake IDs is prevalent on the University of Wisconsin campus, it’s probably as common as it would be in any other college community.
Julia Sherman, coordinator of the Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project through UW Law School, said she doesn’t know if the new licenses would deter students from underage drinking on campus.
“It may impact whether a youth decides whether they want to get alcohol from an establishment or drink socially,” Sherman said.
If students don’t use a fake ID, Sherman said, they may turn to someone who is of age to illegally obtain alcohol.
Barcheski said people under 21 are the main offenders of trying to use fake IDs in the city. Other uses, like for identity theft or fraud for financial reasons, aren’t as common in Madison.
“I’m sure it happens, but it’s probably a lot less likely than people trying to pass themselves off as being of age,” Barcheski said.
Perry said the new licenses are being rolled out at service centers now, and all of them will be issuing the new licenses by the end of October.
Owners of the colored driver’s licenses don’t need to get the upgraded card until their current one expires, she said.
