Local

Driver blasts DDS for poor record keeping

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News is getting more reports from drivers running into problems when trying to renew their licenses, including a Doraville man who discovered his license was suspended when he tried to renew it.

Christian Jones' situation is an example of what's wrong with the Department of Drivers Services based on an audit Channel 2 reported earlier this week. Jones has been driving around the last four months illegally.

"I didn't even know my license had ever been suspended," he said.

He learned of his status after going onto the DDS website to see what it would take to renew his license this year. A red exclamation point popped on the screen with a warning that his license was suspended or revoked.

"No one ever said anything," he told Channel 2's Shae Rozzi.

According to the DDS website, it all surrounds failing to appear in court in DeKalb County.

Jones said what he's really baffled about is that the violation was from 2007 and his license was apparently revoked – now five years later in 2012.

"I don't know where the breakdown lies but there's certainly a problem," Jones said.

A recently released state audit blasts DDS for erroneous and incomplete information in its driver records system. The audit also said DDS is not following up when a driver's address changes and that the agency is not getting conviction information in a timely manner from the courts.

A DDS spokesperson addressed the audit Thursday.

"We have worked hard on a lot of the issues. We've made some good steps and we most definitely are going to take it very seriously and work hard on a lot of it," Georgia DDS spokeswoman Susan Sport said.

For Jones, any improvement is too little too late. He just started a business called I-Repair Mobile to fix iPhones and other devices.

"Being that I'm mobile, I meet customers at their businesses and at their home. Seeing that I have a suspended driver's license, that really puts a hurting on my business. I can't be mobile now," he said.

As a result, Jones said he'll have to have someone else drive him to the courthouse and DDS to get his situation figured out.