The state of New York says its driver's license facial recognition technology has led to the arrest of 4,000 people in connection to identify theft or fraud crimes. This number is likely to skyrocket in the wake of the state doubling the number of measurement points for photographs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that, overall, New York has identified more than 21,000 potential identity or fraud cases. As many as 16,000 people face some type of non-criminal administrative action in connection to the state's facial-recognition program, which was adopted in 2010. Those cases are being handled outside of the judicial system administratively because the criminal statute of limitations has expired and will usually result in the state revoking licenses and transferring tickets and convictions to the identity thief's true rap sheet.

"The use of this facial recognition technology has allowed law enforcement to crack down on fraud, identity theft, and other offenses—taking criminals and dangerous drivers off our streets and increasing the safety of New York's roadways," Cuomo said in a statement. "We will continue to do everything we can to hold fraudsters accountable and protect the safety and security of all New Yorkers."

The state's Department of Motor Vehicles said that half of the motorists identified as having multiple license records obtained their second license after their first one was suspended or revoked. Since June 1, more than 30 people have been charged with fraudulently obtaining a license, Cuomo's office announced.

The state last year increased the measurement points of a driver's license picture from 64 to 128. The DMV said this vastly improves its chances of matching new photographs with one already in a database of 16 million photos. As many as 8,000 new pictures are added each day.

At least 39 US states use some form of facial recognition software.

New York's DMV photo database is not among those databases forwarded to an FBI program containing about 411.9 million facial recognition images of people who have committed no crimes.