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Originally Posted by Platapus

An interesting question.

In the US, there is no single identification document that applies to all citizens. Members of the military have federal military ID cards and citizens who choose to travel passports. But neither of those conditions pertain to the majority of citizens.


Since most people drive in the US and in order to operate a motor vehicle on the public roads, a citizen must have and carry a driver's license, the DL has become a de facto "ID card" in the US.




One of the major complaints of the REAL ID Act was that by the federal government mandating interstate standardization, this was creating a de facto national ID card. The counter to this is that each state controls and keeps the identifying information. The counter to this counter is that the states share information freely between themselves and federal government.

Things are seldom easy in the USA/UFA.

I don't think driver licenses are going away; they are the basic Amerikan police state ID card. Case in point: while on the job I was asked for ID by a well-meaning but nosey MARIN County gendarme who "asked for ID". So no problem: I pulled out my USA PASSPORT CARD which is the finest ID on the planet, and gave it to him. He thanked me and then asked for the driver license as he could not deal with a passport ID. Naturally, being on foot on my own turf with no time for rigamarole (also spelled rigmarole), I said "I'm not driving and you have the best ID in the world as per your request sir." And so it goes in small towns across "Merika". The officer was not amused...but his partner was. Even in 'Merika: I had complied and you only have to comply...ONCE!

Precisely. The driver license is the universal American ID as police cruiser's computers are tied to it for convenient field work. In social security offices, I've accepted YMCA cards with a photo or even credit cards with photos to those who been robbed of wallets and are replacing lost or stolen S.S. cards.(birth certificates are preferred) The latest passport card, I use for land travel only, to Mexico or Canada, is pretty technically advanced counterfeit-wise...I see it as the coming thing for an Amerikan 'universal ID'. Still it's not something an officer can readily tie into on his computer...yet. In California at least , when a Peace Officer asks you for ID, you are required to comply.