Winston County Probate Judge Sheila Moore and Chief Clerk J.C. Pruitt place a sign up letting customers know of the coming closure of driver’s license services at the office April 18-25.
DOUBLE SPRINGS - Driver's license operations throughout the state will halt for one week, April 18-25, for some much needed system updates, so the public is encouraged to do any last minute or urgent business before that time.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Driver System, also known as LEADS, has issued a notice that all driver’s license offices, units and services will be temporarily closed in order to facilitate the installation of the new system. Driver’s license operations will resume on Tuesday, April 26, due to the observance of Confederate Memorial Day Monday, April 25, Winston County Probate Judge Sheila Moore said.
“Offices across the State of Alabama and here in Winston County will be closed and cannot renew, do duplicates, do anything for customers on driver’s licenses at all from the 18th until the morning of the 26th,” Moore pointed out. “We will be closed down.”
The temporary closure is necessary not only to install updated services, but to test those services before the reopening date, Moore said.
“Then, they will roll over the new system and get everybody connected at one time,” Moore stated.
The new equipment to be installed includes cameras without a flash. Instead, LED lighting, will be used, the probate judge explained. The updated equipment will be linked to the U.S. Postal Service, so a customer giving an address can be automatically verified.
“It verifies different areas constantly as you are going through, instead of doing a background check when it gets to the state,” Moore said.
The new equipment will provide updated information. If a motorist, for example, has a wreck and cannot verify information, a simple scan of the back of a driver’s license can display on the state network emergency contact information available at the scene.
“The biggest thing is verification of your address,” Moore pointed out. “We have a lot of people who will just give us an address and it’s not a valid 9-1-1 address.
“If you don’t have a valid physical 9-1-1 address, it will not verify,” Moore reminded. “You have to have your physical address on your driver’s license. We can mail to a P.O. box, but if that physical address is not valid, it will not verify.”
Moore stated that anyone who has an issue with the background check will be sent to the driver’s license examiner’s office. Anyone who is having an issue having their address verified will be sent to the post office.
Probate office employees are currently taking online tests in order to be ready when the new driver’s license system is installed, she added. J.C. Pruitt, chief clerk at the probate office, is in the process of taking his online testing in preparation for the new system.
“How is it better for the office? We won’t know until we get to the other side,” Pruitt stated. “We hope that any new software and programs are going to make it easier on us. That’s the goal.”
Employees are able to access the current system by a fingerprint.
“The new one, we don’t have to do that, which is incredible,” Pruitt stated.
The new system can be accessed by an employee password, he continued.
Moore added the new system will be more web based, officials said.
“We want customers to know that we are learning this (new) system,” Moore stated. “Give us a month or so to get with the program because we are all going to be learning as we go.”
Although employees are currently doing online testing of the new system, the true experience will be conducting business hands-on, according to Moore.
Before, if a customer lost his or her temporary driver’s license, they would be charged $31.25 for another temporary copy, according to the probate judge’s office. Under the new system, a customer will not be charged for receiving another copy if something happens to their first temporary copy, officials pointed out.
The closure will not just affect the driver’s license services at the probate office, but also at the examiner’s office, which is usually open each Wednesday from 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Double Springs Municipal Building. There, the public can take their driver’s road test, have special identifications added to a driver’s license, picture identifications and to obtain a state driver’s license for those coming in from out-of-state, officials said.
The examiner’s office basically handles anything regarding a driver’s license that has to be created, as well as the driver’s test itself, authorities said.
“We don’t create anything at this (probate judge’s) office,” Moore stated. “All we do is renew or issue a duplicate on your license.”
If the probate office flags something on a person’s information or license that needs to be checked further, that person is sent to the examiner’s office, Moore said.
Regarding overall services and those conducted at the probate judge’s office, Moore advised, “Try to get in here and get your license renewed prior to the (closing) date.
“We’re only going to be down for a week,” she added. “If your license expires on (April) 18, you’ve got 60 days after they are expired, but you can renew your driver’s license six months prior to the expiration date.”
The new equipment, to be installed statewide will only apply to driver’s licenses and will have nothing to do with other services at the probate office, such as vehicle license tags, titles, boating licenses, business license, recording of deeds, etc. Those services will continue throughout the duration of the closure, according to Moore.
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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