A new look for Iowa driver’s licenses could make it easier for police officers and retailers to decipher whether someone buying alcohol or tobacco is underage.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is increasing the differences between the license of a minor and that of an adult of legal age in an effort to make its licenses more difficult to counterfeit.

All new driver’s licenses issued will now have the name and address of minors printed in red instead of black.

“I think it will be very helpful to us,” said Linda Verrips, manager of the Maintenance Shop, located in the Memorial Union. “We ID everybody, and that will help us do it faster.”

Sgt. Randy Kessel, public information officer for the Ames Police Department, also said the new licenses will make it easier for officers to check them.

“Anything that will assist not only officers in bars, but also people checking in stores for alcohol and tobacco products, will help,” Kessel said.

Pat Greene, manager of Cy’s Roost, 121 Welch Ave., said it is still too soon to tell whether the new licenses will be effective in deterring minors from getting alcohol.

“We haven’t really seen any effect,” Greene said. “I don’t think very many people have them yet.”

Greene said the use of fake IDs might actually increase until the new licenses are common because the change could be confusing.

Cpt. Gary Foster, public information officer for the Story County Sheriff’s Office, also said the new licenses have not affected his department yet.

“I think it’s pretty new,” Foster said. “None of us here at the Sheriff’s Office have seen the result of it.”

Foster said he was proud of the strides the DOT has taken to make fake IDs more difficult to come by in Iowa.

“With the new IDs the state has come up with, it makes them harder to duplicate,” he said.

Verrips also thinks the new design will increase difficulty in producing fake licenses. “I think it will make them harder to duplicate,” he said.

But Greene said the change is not a cure to the problem of minors buying alcohol, and checking the age of a patron still should involve a close inspection of the identification.

“I remind employees to keep looking at the ID, not just what color it is,” he said.