This month Florida DMV will be upgrading the license and I.D card...again.

By the way they put it, the mark "Florida predator", in blue, will remain on the license but for offenders the identifying mark of 943.0435 F.S. , currently in black , will now be in Blue.

"The new Florida driver license and ID card allows for the identification of sexual predators and sexual offenders with a blue identifier on the bottom right of the front of the card. Sexual predators will have “Sexual Predator” spelled out on the card, while sexual offenders have “943.0435 F.S.” listed in this area."

http://weartv.com/news/local/new-florida-drivers-license-to-boost-security

https://www.flhsmv.gov/driver-licenses-id-cards/newdl/

SHALIMAR, Fla. (WEAR) —

Starting Monday, August 28, anyone in any Florida county can go into selected driver's license centers across the state and get the newest driver license, but some new additions have community members raising eyebrows.

The driver's license office in Shalimar is one of the few places rolling out the new ID on its first day of availability, and plenty of people were there to get one.

No one looks forward to a morning or afternoon at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), but it's a necessary evil when you move or lose your license.

Channel 3's Christopher Saul did both.

It's more than a pretty piece of plastic said tax collector Ben Anderson, who's in charge of Okaloosa County's driver's license program.

"With technology as it is today and the incidents of fraud in all aspects of your life, it was time for a renovation and a change of those security features," Anderson said.

Per the DMV, along with the merging of lifetime hunting, fishing, and boating licenses, the ID has more than double the fraud protection measures on the card to stop identity theft or underage alcohol sales.

"It's very, very difficult to, from a fraud standpoint, to duplicate this card. That's what it is all about," Anderson said.

The new license turns heads in Okaloosa County; including Don Gatchell's.

He's a retired parole officer with the state of Florida who worries an old, but remodeled feature - a mandatory sexual offender identification on the card - may be too much.

"My honest opinion now that I have been out of it for 10 years, retired, I think we're overdoing it with the sex offenders. I mean, I know there are some guys out there, sex offenders, that are bad, but not all sex offenders are bad. You got people out there who are on probation for underage sex for example," Gatchell said.

He worries the ID will cause unnecessary prejudice in the lives of those impacted, but he likes the new security the card will offer.

"If it stops the identity theft and the fraudulent or cuts it down quite a bit that would be good and hopefully it will be effective doing that," Gatchell said.

You'll be able to get the new ID at any driver's license office around the state by December.

The Okaloosa DMV in Shalimar is the only location in our area with the new license.

The next closest location is in Tallahassee.

If you have one of the old ID's don't worry, you don't have to replace it until it expires.