SAN ANTONIO –
The Texas Department Of Public Safety is coming under fire for a new fingerprinting procedure.
As of last months, DPS began collecting complete sets of fingerprints for people getting new Texas licenses, IDs and renewals at their offices.
Previously, they only required a thumb or index fingerprint.
While it may seem harmless, watchdog.org reporter Jon Cassidy said it's not exactly secure or legal.
"There's nothing that the legislature has ever passed that allows them to do that," said Cassidy
Cassidy said legislators rejected a proposal for this type of procedure in 2003.
However, DPS said it is legal under an existing law.
"If they can build a nice database of our records, that's going to help them solve crimes, it's going to help other police agencies solve crimes. The problem is, a lot of us don't really want our records being held by the state government," said Cassidy.
Another concern for privacy advocates is the risk identity theft. As biometrics are being used more often, fingerprints can be used to access bank accounts, credit cards and other personal information.
Also, Cassidy said the new system resulted in unclear images where fingerprints were combined, putting people at risk of being misidentified.
DPS officials released the following written statement:
"The department has been working through a technical and procedural issue with the new equipment. DPS employees have performed quality control testing and identified some errors with some of the prints that were taken recently. the vendor is making technical adjustments and DL staff will make procedural adjustments to equipment operation.
"This is not unexpected for new technology implementation, but does require us to review and purge some DL fingerprints. Any fingerprints that are questionable will be purged and recaptured at the applicant's next visit."
At the Leon Valley Mega Center DPS office, reactions to the new system were mixed.
"Sometimes that actually protects people versus I don't want to be exposed to what I'm doing but at the same time it also helps," said Daniel Nunez, who was renewing his drivers license.
"Honestly, if I had the choice I'd rather not do it but if there's no other way around it what can we do?" said Matt Palacios.
For now, Cassidy admits the only choice is to have your prints taken or chance going without an important piece of identification.
