2011: A DMV Odyssey

Big Brother’s doing a bit more than just watching you these days.


Remember the last time you got your driver’s license renewed? You may recall the procedure for taking your picture was a bit different than it used to be. Instead of the usual “smile”! you might have been told to do no such thing – very specifically. To be as expressionless as possible. And that the system seemed more “high-tech” than it used to be. Instead of receiving your new license on-site, it would be mailed to you in a week or so – from some unspecified “secure location,” perhaps. You may have been told or seen signs or been given literature explaining that the new way of taking your picture is part of new security measures designed to make it harder for people to manufacture fake IDs (since a driver’s license is the de facto national ID in this country).


But they probably didn’t mention that the pictures – digitized images, actually – were to be downloaded into a new database that uses facial recognition software to “scan” for (are you surprised?) Terrorists – among other things.


Only it’s ordinary Americans who are being terrorized.


As The Boston Globe reports, Massachussetts resident John H. Gass had his license revoked after the facial recognition Hive Mind deemed him an un-Person. Glass had done nothing, though – other than being tardy opening his mail, including a threatening letter from the Massachussetts Registry of Motor Vehicles demanding that he prove the guy pictured on his DL was, in fact, him.
Here’s where it gets interesting – and depressing.


Gass had already established his identity – apparently, to the satisfaction of the state motor vehicle authorities – at the time his license was originally issued. Just like everyone else who applies for a DL.
Now it – well, a computer – demanded he prove it again. On his nickel. On his own time.


Or else.


“Or else” being – no more driving privileges for you.


Gass tried to do so – for ten days, according to The Globe.


First, he called the Motor Vehicle Registry, explaining that he’d forgotten to open his mail, including the letter they’d sent dated March 22, which notified him his license had been revoked effective April 1. The bureaucrats at the registry advised him his digitized image had been “flagged” by the computer because it was similar in appearance to the image of someone else. Now it was up to him, said the Registry drone, to come to them with documents to prove his identity.


Again.


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