TSA to Better Train Agents How to Recognize DC Driver’s Licenses
Jeff Edwards August 20, 2014
Following a meeting with Washington, D.C., delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Transportation Security Administration has agreed to step up their methods of training transportation security officers how to recognize D.C. driver’s licenses and IDs.
Last month, The Washingtonian reported that Justin Gray, a Washington correspondent for the Cox Media Group, was prevented from going to his gate after presenting his D.C. driver’s license to a transportation security officer (TSO) at Orlando International Airport (MCO). Gray tweeted that the TSO claimed to have “never heard of [the] ‘District of Columbia’” and demanded another form of identification.
During the agency’s meeting with D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that all three D.C. driver’s licenses are currently in circulation as part of TSO’s daily shift briefings. The TSA said it will hold a 4-hour training session for travel document checkers, supervisors and TSOs in September. One hour of the new training session will be devoted to identification of driver’s licenses, including the current three for D.C.
“DC residents were caught short when their licenses were questioned,” Norton said in a press release issued Monday. “Residents are sensitive about invidious treatment, considering what Congress throws at them. I appreciate the remedial actions led by top officials at the TSA.”
The TSA is not alone in its confusion when it comes to D.C. driver’s licenses. In New Hampshire, a D.C. resident was prevented from purchasing alcohol at a liquor store because, according to state law, businesses that sell alcohol can accept a driver’s license with photo identification from any of the 50 states and the provinces of Canada.
Norton said in her statement that D.C. is “trying our best to become the 51st State, but our unique identification being the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, should be enough.”
[Photo: iStock]
This has nothing really to do with peoples abilities to name all the US states but rather the process written up by the people in charge. At the end of the day, I guess the person who checked the drivers license, and didn't recognize it had not been presented with the specific type during training and/or it was not present in their "certified ID" manual. From a safety point of view, I think the employee did the right thing, whether or not s(he) knows all the 50 states drivers license's and their local variations. In most of Europe, a drivers license is NOT a valid form of identification...
And AS and MP.
Quite pathetic but good for a laugh while eating lunch. I'll have to be sure to avoid New Hampshire in my future travels if those are the only photo ID they'll accept. I haven't had a US issued drivers license for 5+ years, would be pretty shortsighted for them not to accept passports as well.
Better hiring standards. Anyone who cannot name all fifty states, DC, PR, VI, & GU on a pre-test shouldn't be hired. Any American who does not know such basic things, has no business being anywhere else than in school.
This story and the others like it only reinforce the fact that our schools have failed.