Over the last three years, the State of New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles has been using facial recognition technology to investigate identity fraud cases. During this time, the DMV has looked at 13,000 cases, and the technology has helped lead to more than 2,500 arrests and 5,000 facing administrative action.

The DMV implemented its system in February 2010, and it uses the technology to help identify individuals who try to get multiple state identifications, which could be driver’s licenses or state IDs. The system also verifies that a person renewing an ID is the same person that was originally issued the ID.

The DMV’s database contains about 20 million photographs, and DMV employees review the system to make sure that each ID applicant hasn’t already been issued an ID, as it’s a crime in the state to possess a second identity document from the DMV.

The system has been able to catch subjects who had a valid New York driver’s license while having another driving record that was suspended or revoked; subjects who had many known records that were all suspended or revoked; and subjects who had multiple valid licenses.