Local Residents Share Bad Experiences With New Real ID and Driver's License Center in Bowling Green

Sample of a newer KY driver's license edited with emojis.

Darren Doyle, story:
If you're an Edmonson County resident and haven't renewed your driver's license or attempted to get a Real ID since November 29, 2021, prepare for a possible long and frustrating day, according to nearly all the 20 different folks that shared their bad experiences with us.

The good ol' days of strolling into our Edmonson County Circuit Court Clerk's Office in the Brownsville Courthouse to renew driver's licenses are a thing of the past, thanks to the folks in Frankfort that decided regional offices were better suited to complete these tasks.

This decision was completely made at the state level with a majority of circuit court clerks agreeing, although our local clerk at the time said she was not in favor. The state claimed that this was so local court offices could focus strictly on court matters, not driver testing or licenses.

I have yet to have the privilege of renewing my license but will tackle the mission sometime next year, however, my wife Debbie was the first to share her experience with me when she had to attempt a walk-in session last Saturday. The reason she had to choose a walk-in was because she didn't realize her license was expiring in two days. She mistakenly thought she had another month.

Even if she'd had another month, she wouldn't have been able to make an appointment, as they are booked two months in advance. That's what happens when you have one office with about the same amount of staff as a local circuit clerk's office, except instead of serving a population of 12,000 in Edmonson County, now you are looking at catering to a population of nearly 250,000, as the Warren County Office now serves Allen, Barren Butler, Edmonson, Simpson, and Warren counties.

Her experience was this: she arrived on a Saturday morning right around 8AM (when the office opens) to see that the office is actually on the 7th Avenue side of Stadium Park Plaza, not 8th Avenue as the address is listed. She could see a line of people out the door. Most of them arriving nearly 30 minutes or more before opening, according to those in line.

She said there was no one to guide people in line, direct them where they needed to go, or answer any questions, and that there wasn't really a line, it was just a jumbled mess of confused people from all six counties.

She also said she witnessed several rude interactions between the office staff and patrons with one staff member yelling at an older lady to "step back please!" when she leaned over to hear her more clearly. While it's likely the staff member was frustrated with her situation, I've never heard of anyone getting yelled at, at the Edmonson County Circuit Court's Office. In fact, it has always been the opposite, with some sweet lady greeting me with "Hi, hun, how can we help today? How's your mom?"

Ah, the good ol' days.

It took Debbie 3.5 hours to get her Real ID and renewal. She said everyone there was either rude or very short with her and others, and she was part of the last five patrons who were accepted that day. All the others after her were turned away. While she was not happy with the entire experience, she assumed it was because she waited until the last minute, along with about 300 other folks.

She said one staff member was actually sitting behind the counter making paper clip necklaces.

Her ordeal is what prompted me to reach out to the public and ask for other experiences. We posted a request on our Facebook Page last week for anyone that wanted to share their experiences to please message us so we could conduct interviews. We did not indicate we were looking for neither bad nor good experiences, just for the public to share their thoughts on the new system.

Google street view of the Warren County Regional Real ID and License Center on 7th Ave in Bowling Green.

Boy, did we quickly get responses. We had to disable comments on our FB Page because instead of direct messages, everyone was simply commenting on the post and several of them were profanity-laced. Karen King from Wingfield was one of the first to message us.

"I had to make an appointment online and had to make sure I went through the lists of all things necessary to get the ID and take with me," she said. "I get there, there’s a line of people that stretches out of the building and into the parking structure. Once I’m called, the woman working with me did not speak good English, so it was hard to understand what she was saying. Was not a great experience, but I thought about the many elderly that don’t have computer accessibility or know how to make an appointment, plus the drive into BG, plus the lines…just seems it has complicated things for many people."

When asked how it compared to being able to do it locally in Brownsville, her reply was simply "It was a disaster."

Kim Ray, from Segal, said it took three hours for her, despite the fact she actually had an appointment.

"I made an appointment 3 weeks before time for my license to expire, arrived 30 mins before with all the required documents, arrived to a line, they had a very nice man asking what each person was their for, he showed us where the appointment line was, we waited in that line for approximately 45 mins just to have your paper work verified, then you were put in a que to see an actual person that processed your license, 3 hours later even having an appointment!"

Elizabeth Miller, who lived in Brownsville at the time of her renewal, also said her appointment was not honored.

"My license expired in November. I made my appointment in October, and it was for the first week in November," she said. "When I arrived, there was already a line and when I tried to explain I had made an appointment in advance, I was still told to join the line anyway. I received a piece of paper that was essentially a receipt of my payment for the new ID. I thankfully was never pulled over. When I went to update Information at my child's school and my own doctors appointments, they said they couldn't accept the receipt. I ended up receiving my ID right after New Years."

She said she was not given a temporary license like others said they received, including Debbie, and her license expired before her new one arrived in the mail.

The worst experience we heard was from John Lindsey of Smiths Grove. He said he lost an entire Bahamas cruise as a result of an error with office.

"My wife, son and I had the real IDs made. Firstly the people aren’t friendly, secondly they messed up on the expiration date on my wife’s and prevented her/us from boarding a ship to the Bahamas, resulting in a complete loss of our money," John said.

He explained that the office printed the wrong expiration date on their new IDs, one that had already passed and they didn't catch it at the time. Upon BOARDING THE SHIP is when it was discovered, and the cruiseline simply would not allow her to board the ship!

While the office did not print the wrong date on purpose, there was nothing the family could do at that moment, despite calling the office and the local sheriff.

"They transferred the expiration date from her driver's license to her Real ID instead of a renewal date. My son's and mine were correct," he said. Lindsey said the office did not offer to help in any way, other than to fix the date on the ID, which would have to be done in person.

We called the Bowling Green office in an attempt to ask about these negative experiences and the botched vacation, but as you might expect, there was no one to answer the call. We received a recorded message that listed the website and email address to make appointments or ask questions, which was not easy to follow, even for a tech savvy person, or we could leave a voicemail and someone would return our call within two business days. Yes, two days.

We then emailed the address given and I listed most all the major complaints from those that shared with us and asked for their responses to those complaints. I also asked about the lost vacation. I received a response from Mrs. Naitore Djigbenou, who was listed as the Executive Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the KY Transportation Cabinet, who said she would be unable to meet the deadline I gave her, which was just shy of 48hrs. I told her I could possibly push the deadline back (noon today) and so she sent her comments late.

"Our goal is to efficiently serve Kentuckians' licensing needs while being committed to continuous improvement to offer all guests a quality experience at our offices," she said in an email. "While walk-in customers are always welcome, Kentuckians are encouraged to schedule appointments online or renew online or by mail whenever possible to save time.  Our staff does their best to honor appointments, but there are cases where the length of time may be extended to ensure we serve every customer's unique needs. Kentuckians may visit any of our 33 regional offices, and in some cases, they can skip a trip to an office altogether by choosing to renew online or by mail. We recently added additional seating at the Bowling Green location and are in the process of filling a vacant supervisor position."

She continued with some additional background.

"Kentucky's HB 453 passed in 2020, transferring licensing responsibilities to the Transportation Cabinet. This shift of licensing services from Circuit Court Clerks to the Transportation Cabinet allows the process to be modernized by offering online appointment scheduling, online and mail-in driver licensing renewal, and the option between a REAL ID or standard card version. For counties that don't have a regional office, pop-up driver licensing is offered periodically throughout the year for citizens to request a credential within their home county. Additionally, we've doubled the lifespan of cards so Kentuckians can now choose a card valid for four or eight years- reducing the number of visits needed to a regional office."

All that is of course, 100% true, but issues like those not able to travel during the work week outside of the county, those that have trouble using technology (elderly), and not having enough staff to regularly handle the number of people overshadow the positives that the Commonwealth is attempting to achieve.

She also clarified the issue with John Lindsey's cruise, but she gave information about John's specific license, not his wife's, who John said had the error on it. Full disclosure, I did not give her Mr. Lindsey's wife's name when I first asked, only John's.

Her email stated the following: "Kentuckians may upgrade their standard license to a REAL ID version anytime for $15 but if they are not within six months of their expiration date, the new card will maintain their expiration date. Regarding Mr. Lindsey who went on the cruise, he was not within his renewal window when he requested a REAL ID in 2022 which is why his new REAL ID license maintained its original expiration date of April 9, 2024. He did not renew his license until July 2024."

We provided this statement to Mr. Lindsey who disagreed. He replied to us with: "That’s incorrect, my wife, son and I all got the Real ID at the same time. Mine and my son were correct, the only expiration date that transferred was my wife’s."

There were two residents that shared comments with us about positive experiences they had. Both Amanda Eicher, from Brownsville, and Nikki McGrew from Rocky Hill said everything went well for them.

"Our family has been twice. Once for an ID and another for a Real Id. We took the needed papers listed on the site and made an appointment," said McGrew. "We were in and out within 20 minutes. I will say that the line for those that do not have an appointment has always been on the longer side but they seemed to move rather quickly while we were there."

Amanda Eicher said while she would prefer a different design of the license, and would rather have it done in Brownsville, she had no issues.

"I had a great experience when I went to get my new license they was all very nice and helpful," she said. "I didn't have an appointment and I didn't have to wait very long but I got there when they opened."

Everyone else we spoke with described their times as "chaos," "a pain," "a bad decision," and "super frustrating."

You will need very specific documentation if you attempt to obtain a Real ID, which is a federal ID. Those requirements include:

• one (1) valid proof of identity
• one (1) valid proof of social security number and
• two (2) valid proofs of residency (dated less than 61 days for most documents).
• Additional documentation may be required if an applicant’s name or gender doesn’t match on the four proof documents (like a marriage certificate or divorce decree if your names don’t match due to marriage or divorce). Applicants may need to reorder documents if they do not display legal names (like a nickname printed on a social security card). A detailed list of acceptable documents is available on the Confident Kentucky website. The online IDocument Guide quiz provides a customized list of documents an applicant will need to present. Some acceptable documents have strict requirements (i.e., no photocopies of birth certificates, unexpired documents, non-laminated social security cards).

Anytime you see the DMV on TV shows and movies, you see terrible long lines of frustrated customers, rude, insensitive, and even incompetent staff workers. I never understood that because growing up in EC, it was never like that in Brownsville. Today, since the forced changes have taken place all over Kentucky, the DMV on screen has now become real life for many rural counties, including several residents of Edmonson County.