GENERALLY SPEAKING: State issuing new driver’s licenses to help cut fraud

By Theodore W. General

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has been begun issuing new “fool proof” driver licenses. A NYC teacher showed us the new version she received other day. According to the DMV, the new licenses have been designed with more than 30 security features making them among the most secure in the country.

Comparing it to my license which doesn’t expire until 2018, it is made from a tougher plastic with a small see through window with the operator’s photo etched on the window in addition to the larger laser-engraved portrait. The photos are no longer in color. Apparently, the black and white photos have a better resolution when law enforcement officers run photo comparisons. Ever watch NCIS or Law and Order!

Another major change is that the license for those under 21 has a vertical shape, instead of the more tradition horizontal format. This includes learner’s permits and non-driver ID’s issued to the under 21 group. The vertical shape license should make it that much easier for bar bouncers, and store clerks that sell alcoholic beverages to quickly challenge someone who is underage.

We’re advised the photos on the new-style license are laser engraved images rather than printed like on the old licenses. The result is a virtually tamper resistant and highly security enhanced license. In this day and age of terrorism and identity theft, it will be helpful to law enforcement to have DMV licenses and ID’s that can’t be easily forged or compromised! Let’s hope the Mayor’s new municipal ID program will incorporate similar safeguards.

* * *

With the kind cooperation of FDNY Chief of the Department Edward Kilduff, we joined a host of veterans, K-9 NYPD Transit officers and their canines, and retired fire-fighters aboard the Department’s newest and biggest fire boat, the Three Forty Three for a ride into New York Harbor. This is the vessel dedicated and named in memory of the 343 firefighters that lost their lives during the horrific attacks at the World Trade Center. The boat (it’s really a ship) is 140 foot long, has 11 water cannons, and can pump 50,000 gallons per minute. I understand she is the biggest firefighting vessel in the nation and the most powerful in the world. The name plates on the bow and stern were forged from steel from the World Trade Center.
After returning to her berth of operations at the Marine One firehouse, which is based at the foot of Bloomfield Street and the North River, there was a small collation hosted by Marine One firefighters and FDNY community relations coordinator Linda Thompson.