Oklahoma's Insurance ID Checks Go Digital: Public Safety: Sy

May 4--The state's electronic insurance verification system designed to crack down on uninsured motorists should be fully operational in less than two months, state officials say.

Five police departments across the state began using the computerized system last week. State tag agents have been using it since Oct. 1, said David Beatty,with the state Public Safety Department and project manager for Oklahoma's compulsory insurance verification system. An Oklahoma Highway Patrol troop headquartered in Lawton has been testing the system, he said.

"We're very close," Beatty said. "We were ready last July. Getting the insurance companies on board has been the real struggle."

The department wants to make sure all insurance policy information is in the database to ensure law officers have accurate information when they run vehicle tag checks on motorists, Beatty said.

"If we have no records just because the insurance company is not participating, that's not fair to the consumer," Beatty said. "We know everything's working right, but we would like all the companies to be participating so that we are absolutely sure that nobody's falling through the cracks."

Beatty said tag agents started using the program in October to run insurance verification checks on every tag renewal and most registrations.

The Bristow, Duncan, Eufaula, Jones and Seminole police departments began using the system last week, he said.

The insurance check will be automatic on each stop as part of a routine check on the vehicle tag, he said. Law officers now run computerized checks to make sure the vehicle is properly licensed and is not stolen.

The new system will allow Oklahoma law officers to instantly verify whether a driver is uninsured. The system only checks personal vehicles; commercial vehicles are not on the system.

Courts also will have access to the database, Beatty said.

Marc Young, a spokesman for the state Insurance Department, said it's estimated about 25 percent of Oklahoma motorists don't have vehicle insurance. "The current economic situation doesn't help," he said.

The online system will work only in Oklahoma. About 30 states have similar systems. They aren't compatible with each other, however.

Cards still needed Insurance Department officials are advising Oklahoma motorists to keep their paper insurance verification cards, which are now required to be in vehicles, in the event they drive out of state or are involved in minor accidents and want to share insurance information without filing a police report.

A law establishing the computerized system was passed in 2006. Delays have been caused by a decision last year to let the Public Safety Department set up and operate the system instead of initial plans to contract with a private vendor.

Beatty, who became involved with the system about a year ago, said the state is saving about $500,000 in start-up costs alone by developing and running the system as well as at least $100,000 a year that would be paid to a private company. The state has spent about $25,000 in equipment to bring the system online.

It's also taking longer than expected to get all the 165 insurance companies that write personal vehicle liability premiums to share information with the state's database. Insurance companies are responsible for providing policy information directly to the Public Safety Department.

"For real-time online verification to work, the state must be able to identify on any given day all insurance companies who are actively writing personal lines vehicle policies in Oklahoma," Beatty said.

Most of the major insurance companies cooperated immediately, but it's been a struggle to get the smaller companies that write a handful of the state's vehicle policies to comply, officials said.

Kathie Stepp, director of the rate and form compliance division for the state Insurance Department, said about 15 insurers are not participating in the auto insurance verification system. Ten of those did not write personal auto liability insurance in 2008, one is not authorized to write personal auto policies, she said. Two insurers plan to begin participating this month and one will begin July 1, she said.

About 99.5 percent of the insurance companies who wrote personal auto policies in 2008 are participating, Stepp said.

Young said the department is frustrated it's taken longer than expected to get the program operating.

"In recent months we have seen the number of uninsured motorists on our roads continue to rise, and we hope this will be a significant step to address this problem," Young said. "Although the responsibility for implementing the online verification system rests exclusively with the Department of Public Safety, we have and will continue to assist them with any request, or in any other way we can, to make the system successful."

Rep. John Wright, chairman of the House Administrative Rules and Agency Oversight Committee, has been bringing in representatives from both agencies to report on the system's status.

Wright, a longtime supporter of the database, said it will be an important tool that allows law enforcement officials to instantly check a vehicle's insurance status every time a vehicle is pulled over.

"The database will allow us to identify those drivers before they cause an accident and hopefully discourage people from driving without insurance," said Wright, R-Broken Arrow. "That will ultimately lead to lower premiums for all Oklahomans."

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