COURT ALLOWS POLAROID TO TAKE OVER DMV LICENSE MANUFACTURING.

Byline: Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

The California Supreme Court has declined to review a lower-court ruling on a disputed contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles, clearing the way for Polaroid Corp. to begin making a new generation of tamper-proof driver licenses.

NBS Imaging Systems, which has been making California licenses since 1962, and Polaroid had been fighting over the $24 million contract for nearly four years.

The Sacramento County Superior Court initially ruled for NBS after finding that a Polaroid subcontractor had a role in drafting specifications for the contract. The 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned the decision after finding no basis for the Superior Court ruling.

The Supreme Court's action last Friday exhausts the legal process and Polaroid will take over the contract, said NBS attorney Michael Franchetti. ``We have believed all along that the law was violated,'' he said.

Anthony Walker, a DMV division chief, said he hasn't met with Polaroid and NBS to plan the transition, but he assumes the new licenses will be generally available to California motorists by the end of the year after a period of testing and a phase-out of NBS processing.

The new licenses won't look much different than the current version, Walker said, but they will be harder to counterfeit. Motorists will receive their permanent licenses in about five days rather than seven to 14 days and law enforcement will get quicker access to pictures and license data.

Polaroid licenses will contain two images of the driver - one regular photo and a ``ghost'' or small image embedded in an internal plastic layer. The license number will be printed on a bar code on the back of the card along with any restrictions, such as corrective lenses or daylight driving only.

People applying for licenses also will receive a receipt with their picture on it.

``This will eliminate substitute test takers,'' Walker said, ``or someone taking and passing a written or driving examination for someone else.''

Polaroid will be paid 49 cents for each license produced, compared with a fee of 74 cents that NBS has been receiving. Because about 30,000 of the documents are produced daily, the DMV will save about $7,500 per day.

The DMV currently pays for paper and materials used to print photos for law enforcement and state use. Polaroid will assume those costs, saving up to $1,100 per day, Walker said.

Bob Gunther of Polaroid's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., said the new licenses will be produced at a Sacramento plant that has been operating on a limited basis for several years. The plant is highly automated, he said, and will have only 10 to 12 employees when Polaroid becomes the state's sole vendor.