Plans for Little Rock's new city ID program coming together

Opening of bank accounts one use

The plans for Little Rock's new city ID program are coming together now that a banking partner has signed on and a template of the photo identification has been approved.

A start date and celebration are set for Saturday, July 7 -- about a year and a half from the first announced start date that kept getting pushed back.

There are many touted uses for the city ID, officially known as a municipal ID, but one of the most valuable will be as verification to open bank accounts.

So far, First Community Bank is the only local banking partner to officially agree to allow the city ID to be used as a form of identification to open up accounts.

When the bank's Hispanic outreach officer, Miguel Lopez, went to get approval from higher-ups to accept the ID, he learned that the bank's procedures already had "city ID" listed as a type of secondary document that could be used to open accounts. Lopez didn't know for certain, when speaking to a reporter recently, all the types of documents that could be paired with the city ID in order to open accounts.

For members of Little Rock's Hispanic community who don't have legal U.S. documentation, the city ID could be paired with a photo ID from the consulate of a person's country of origin, Lopez said. There is a Mexican Consulate in Little Rock. Other countries' consulates are out of state.

Other examples of documents a person could pair with the city identification card to open an account include a birth certificate, a Social Security card or a passport, he said.

"We've signed on because we want to make a strong outreach with the Hispanic community, which is severely underbanked and a lot of times unbanked," Lopez said.

He told the story of a woman for whom he recently helped open an account, and she said she had never had a bank account and had always kept her cash hidden in one of her husband's boots. When Lopez asked her why she was opening an account, she told him it was because she almost sold the pair of boots in a yard sale with all the money inside.

"In the Hispanic community, especially in Little Rock where a lot of them are first generation so they bring some of their beliefs to America, one of those beliefs is mistrust of financial institutions. And there's some merit to that in Central and South America, but here we've got the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] and your money is safe and secure. So one of the things I try to do is basically teach them financial literacy," Lopez said.

The city has primarily been targeting the Hispanic and homeless populations to initially market the new municipal ID program. Both populations have unique barriers to obtaining proper identifications to access services such as bank accounts, shelters, social work, jobs and housing.

But, the city added optional features to the photo ID that will make it more appealing and useful to the public at large. For example, a person applying for a city ID can decide to include an emergency contact, any serious medical condition and their preferred language.

This information can assist law enforcement and medical workers, and first responders to aid a person who has been injured, is unconscious or is a victim or witness of a crime but can't speak or understand English well.

"If somebody has, for example, diabetes, we know diabetic shock can look a lot like being drunk, and if police see on the card this person has a medical condition, they can know they might need to call emergency medical services instead of thinking the person is intoxicated," said Maricella Garcia, Little Rock's multicultural liaison.

The city hired Garcia in September to head the ID program. It will be run out of a newly renovated office, which used to be a neighborhood resource center, at 7414 Doyle Springs Road.

"This is a community engagement project, and I think the wider appeal of the card is evident in what we've done, and when people see it and what it looks like and how it can help, I think a lot more people will be engaged and involved," Garcia said.

She's already given a tutorial class in the Hispanic community with 186 attendees, and another 5,000 watching on a Facebook Live broadcast, going over how to apply for the ID and what documents will be needed.

A person will have to prove his identity and his residency to obtain an ID. Full information on what documents will be considered as proof will be posted in July on the Multicultural Affairs Liaison section of the city of Little Rock website, www.littlerock.gov.

Starting July 7, people will be able to make appointments to get IDs through an online portal, in person at Garcia's office, or over the phone.

The IDs will cost $10. A $3 discount will be offered to minors, senior citizens, anyone who is disabled and veterans. The fee will be waived for anyone who makes below 50 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, anyone who is homeless, is in foster care or is living in a domestic violence shelter.

No other city in Arkansas offers a municipal ID, but several across the nation do.

The first city card was created in New Haven, Conn., in 2007. It started as a way to make it safer for people who lack legal residency status, who were being targeted in robberies because they often didn't have bank accounts and carried around large sums of cash. The uses of the card there have expanded to include use as a debit card with a $150 capacity and the ability to be used to pay parking meters.

Little Rock's cards won't have those features.

Other cities that offer the photo residency cards include Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Garcia said that based on research of other cities' best practices, Little Rock expects to issue about 5,000 cards in the first year to year and a half of the program.

Cards will be issued by appointment only. People can sign up for appointments at the July 7 kickoff event. Some cards will be issued that day. Garcia will be the only person issuing cards. The process includes verifying documents, taking the photo and using a machine to make the card.

Several security measures have been put in place to ensure the cards can't be duplicated or altered. There will be an embedded watermark of the city of Little Rock's "LR" logo and a holographic seal of the city.

Both will be printed by the manufacturer of the cards at the time the plastic is made and cut. Those features will be embedded and will not be able to be removed as if it were laminate.

There will also be a pattern of lines that will partially cover the photo so that if someone was trying to alter the card and change the photo it would be evident that it was fabricated.

Garcia said the city is working with other banks and credit unions to accept the city ID as a form of identification to open a bank account, and she hopes to have more relationships finalized before the July launch date.

Metro on 05/06/2018

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