Facial recognition computer at DMV spurs man’s arrest

CARSON CITY -- The Department of Motor Vehicles' new facial recognition system has discovered a Reno driver alleged to have used a false ID to collect $115,000 in disability payments over 17 years.

Donald Howard, 50, of Reno, was arrested last week by the agency's Compliance Enforcement Division when he picked up his mail. He was charged with identity theft, filing a false applications and possessing fraudulent documents, the agency announced Tuesday.

Howard was arrested because the DMV has been issuing new driver's licenses in Northern Nevada since Oct. 10 that contain security features.

Before the new licenses are printed and mailed to the driver, workers at a California plant use facial recognition equipment to determine whether the new photo and information match what the DMV has in its records for each driver.

DMV investigators say Howard had been using a Nevada identification card in his real name and a driver's license with an identity he admitted buying 18 years ago.

He recently renewed his driver's license at a Reno office and then renewed his ID card at another office.

When the photographs were compared to other photographs the DMV had in its records, workers discovered he had been using a false identity, possibly to collect benefits.

Drivers in Mesquite, Laughlin and Pahrump will begin receiving the new, licenses later this week. Las Vegas area DMV offices will issue them starting in January.

Unlike in the past, drivers will not immediately be given a new license. Their old licenses will be hole-punched and handed back, along with a paper document valid for 30 days.

In the meantime, their photographs will be examined by facial recognition equipment and new licenses issued from the printing plant in California.

The new licenses have at least 10 built-in safety features, including ghost images and micro-printing, that make them difficult to counterfeit. Some safety features are easy to detect, but others will be made known only to law enforcement officers.