Although the Department of Homeland Security has listened to domestic violence prevention groups, there is still far too much left open with the new REAL-ID requirements that have left battered women worried about losing their current protections under the law.

The final rule says that both an individual’s “full legal name” and “true address” must be stored in the DMV database, regardless of what’s displayed on the card and encoded on its bar code. It also requires that motor vehicle departments scan and store “source documents,” such as birth certificates, to verify a driver’s license applicant’s identity.

Homeland Security hasn’t yet stipulated what information must be exchanged among the state-to-state databases, saying only that it will be “limited,” nor has it specified exactly how the database linking will work, leaving lingering worries among privacy and victim advocates.

All it would take is a determined, persuasive stalker–many have tricks, like saying an ex-spouse is suicidal or otherwise in need of help–and a gullible or corrupt DMV employee, and a victim’s identity could be divulged, Southworth said.

“Given that there are less than six degrees of separation between most abusers and a friend or relative who works for the DMV, we are concerned about victims’ location information housed in state databases that could be searched nationally,” Southworth said. “Prior to national search ability, a victim could move to a different state and increase her safety and privacy, but national search functionality could place countless victims at risk.”

In response to privacy groups’ concerns about DMV employees’ access to the databases, Homeland Security opted to require states to devise their own “security plans” for Real ID. That plan is supposed to include, among other things, “procedures to prevent unauthorized access, use, or dissemination of applicant information and images of source documents retained pursuant to the act” and background checks for some, though not all, DMV employees.

Thus, we have another reason why REAL-ID won’t work.  It is too easy to circumvent and places vulnerable people into potential life-threatening circumstances.  We can now add battered women to police officers and judges, whose lives could be in jeopardy if REAL-ID becomes the law.

The only positive aspect is that we appear to have time on our hands.  The federal government has pushed back the deadline, again, to 2011, hoping that more states will support the measure.  Fortunately, as time goes on, more states are rejecting REAL-ID.