OK Driver's Licenses Not Secure; Will No Longer Be Accepted In Certain Areas

Tuesday, September 16th 2014, 5:33 pm

By: Dana Hertneky

If you rely on your Oklahoma Driver's license to get into a secure area like a federal building or an airplane, things will be changing. Oklahoma is one of a handful of states that hasn't complied with a federal mandate to make our driver's licenses more secure.

Beginning in 2015, you won't be able to use your Oklahoma Driver's license as an ID to get through security at federal buildings. And in 2016 you won't be able to use it at the airport either.

“You would be required to have a driver's license and a passport or some other federal ID to actually go through the TSA checkpoint or fly on a commercial aircraft,” explained Karen Carney, spokeswoman with the Will Rogers World Airport.

That's because back in 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act that would make it harder for terrorists to get fake ID's. But in 2007, Oklahoma passed a law forbidding compliance with the act.

On Tuesday the Department of Public Safety says because of that law it "is not taking steps to ensure compliance with the federal REAL ID Act, and has not implemented any policy or practice for the purpose of meeting any of the act's requirements."

Those opposed to REAL ID say they are concerned about privacy issues, a federal ID system and an unfunded federal mandate. DPS says many measures discussed in the REAL ID Act are industry best practices that the department may have implemented independent to the act.