By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — New facial recognition technology has lead to the felony arrest of more than 100 fraudsters, Gov. David Paterson announced Tuesday, including a bank robber on the run and a former hit man seeking to establish a second identity.
In February, the Department of Motor Vehicles began using the technology to prevent identify fraud, which affects an estimated 11 million people a year.
So far, the results have exceeded expectations.
"This is not fantasy but reality and it works," Richmond County District Attorney and Republican Attorney General candidate Dan Donovan said at the press conference.
To illustrate his point, Donovan told the story of a member of the Gambino crime family who, the day after being released from a 12-year stretch in prison, attempted to apply for a license under a different name. The application was flagged and the ex-convict was re-arrested the following day.
The new software scans the photos of every person who applies for a license and then cross-references that data against the 25 million driver and non-driver photos already in the system, DMV Commissioner David Swarts said.
The system then flags the matches, tipping investigators off to individuals who are trying to establish multiple licenses under separate names.
Since its implementation six months ago, the system has uncovered more than 1,000 cases of multiple identity fraud, including people trying to circumvent driving suspensions and much worse, officials said.
There are "deadbeat parents" trying to avoid child support payments and individuals trying file for unemployment benefits under multiple false names.
"There should be one driver for one license," Paterson said, adding that he hopes other states will follow New York's lead and that a national database will soon be established.
So far, the system, which was funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security, has reviewed nearly 1.1 million images. Cross-referencing the entire database is expected to take another three years.
