New York arrests 51 for holding multiple CDLs

Police in New York state recently arrested 51 CDL holders with two or more licenses under different names after police used facial recognition technology on CDL photos.

The New York Department of Motor Vehicles and other state and federal officials were involved in the investigation of truck and bus drivers who fraudulently obtaining multiple driver licenses by using a fake name, according to an Aug. 18 statement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.

The software resulted in the arrests of 70 other CDL drivers earlier this year. In the past 18 months, New York law enforcement arrested about 800 people for having two or more drivers’ licenses under aliases.

In the most recent round of arrests, police charged each driver with offering a false instrument in the first degree and falsifying business records in the second degree. Those with “excessive” unpaid tickets also received a charge of aggravated unlicensed operation in the second degree.

State driver licensing agencies began using facial recognition software in 2002. In a survey last updated 18 months ago, 16 states used or were installing the technology for driver license applications, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.