The Department of Public Safety said an error in an “automated process” caused about 5,000 drivers’ license suspension letters to be sent out to people who have had DUI charges dismissed as far back as 2010.
Public safety department spokesman Warren Strain said the department is working with the contractor for the system, MorphoTrust USA. The “automated process” is part of the processing that occurs when the Driver Service Bureau receives incoming citation information from courts, posts driver records and evaluates driving sanction requirements, Strain explained.
MorphoTrust USA has a 10-year contract with the department for $22,881,575 for drivers’ license modernization, according to the state’s contract website.
The Department said it spent about $2,200 in mail and postage sending out the letters.
According to the original 2012 contract, MorphoTrust USA was to provide public safety with a “turnkey system of equipment, software, installation services, technical support, maintenance, and training for the implementation of a Driver License System.”
MorphoTrust USA referred all questions to DPS.
Lawyers across the state this week began receiving calls from former clients who have had DUI charges dismissed telling them they had received letters saying their licenses would be suspended in January. DUI charges may be dismissed for a variety of reasons, including insufficient evidence and lack of necessary witnesses.
Strain did not immediately respond to questions about how many letters were sent out in error and how the department will notify recipients of the letters that they were sent in error.
The public-safety department is asking those who have received letters dated between Dec. 11 and Dec. 19 to immediately contact the Driver Records Division at (601) 987-1224. Strain said the Department will be sending clarifying information to customers by mail.
“The Mississippi Department of Public Safety regrets any inconvenience this error may have caused,” a statement from the Department said.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.