Charleston goes permanent with ID check program

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The city of Charleston will make permanent an ID verification program tested during a pilot period over the last few months to prevent underage drinking in bars and restaurants.

The city partnered with Intellicheck Inc., an identity validation company that provides ID verification technology used by law enforcement agencies across the country. During the pilot program, supported by the city and Explore Charleston, 30 downtown establishments tested Intellicheck’s ID verification tool in an effort to eliminate underage drinking, according to a news release.

Throughout the six-month trial period, Intellicheck’s mobile app-based technology was used to perform more than 100,000 ID scans that identified approximately 3,400 fake or invalid IDs, Intellicheck reported in the news release. As a result, these IDs were prevented from being used by those illegally seeking to gain access to late-night establishments and alcoholic beverages.

Related article: City of Charleston partners with tech company to curb underage drinking

Intellicheck’s ID verification technology, which is presently used by the Charleston Police Department and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, has proven to be more than 99% accurate in authenticating IDs in less than one second using existing mobile devices or point-of-sale scanners, the release stated.

With the launch of the city’s new, permanent partnership with Intellicheck, businesses located within city limits are invited to take advantage of the ID scanning technology, which includes five mobile app licenses to be used by employees.

“As this pilot program clearly demonstrates, stopping underage drinking makes King Street, and our whole city, safer,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said in the release. “We look forward to welcoming many more local businesses to the Intellicheck program and continuing to work together to protect our residents and visitors alike.”

Councilman Michael S. Seekings agreed.

“For the last six months, we’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that can be made through public-private partnerships,” Seekings said in the release. “Together, we’ve taken great strides toward eliminating underage drinking in our community, and this is just the beginning.”

Lieutenant James Byrne, commander of the CPD’s Central Business District Division, said the program has made the city safer.

“As law enforcement officials, our main focus is protecting our communities, and our partnership with Intellicheck has been instrumental to our efforts to combat the use of fake IDs by underage individuals,” he said in the release. “As this technology becomes available to businesses citywide, we have a valuable opportunity to prevent the tragedies that often occur due to underage drinking and create a safer environment for all.”

Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis said the company looks forward to working with more Charleston businesses.

“We are very proud of the results of our efforts working with the city of Charleston, Explore Charleston, area law enforcement agencies and King Street area businesses to help prevent underage drinking,” Lewis said in the release. “High-tech fake IDs are readily and inexpensively available to young people on the web. Unfortunately, young people don’t recognize the dangerous situation they create for themselves and others when they use those sophisticated fake IDs to access alcohol and other age-restricted products.”