The new and improved Iowa driver’s licenses have arrived.

The Ames Department of Transportation hosted an open house Wednesday morning from 7:45 to 8:30, where officials issued duplicate licenses for $1.

Mark Frein, driver’s license supervisor for northwest Iowa, said law enforcement officials, legislators, county officials and city officials were invited to the open house “so those agencies are made familiar that we are issuing new licenses, and so they can get the new license.”

The new licenses will be issued to drivers when they renew their expired licenses for the same price as the old licenses, but Frein said everyone is encouraged to come in and get the duplicate license even before their old one expires.

Many changes have made the new licenses difficult to alter. The magnetic stripe and 2-D bar code on the back contain customer-specific information and work just as a bank card would, allowing a police officer writing up a citation to swipe the card through a scanner in order to bring up information about the card holder.

This information includes the picture of the card holder, which is stored in the computer. With the old licenses, said Kim Snook, public service supervisor in eastern Iowa, “you walked out with the only photo.”

Storing photos in the computer provides advantages for law enforcement officials. Snook said once a person’s picture is in the computer, it is impossible for someone to bring in that person’s birth certificate in order to get a false ID.

The new licenses will also make it easier to track people. If a missing person is in the computer, that photo can be transmitted nationwide in a matter of minutes.

Red-lettering on the front of the card highlights the card holder’s date of birth, the card’s expiration date, and for minors, there is an “Under 21 until …” section.

Iowa is also the only state, Frein said, to have “involved first hand, law enforcement people and have their input on what they would like to see on a license.”

Snook said the distributing process began Nov. 6 in eastern Iowa. It is a “very technical process and we wanted to work out any problems before it went statewide,” Snook said.

Snook said the first day the card was released in Davenport — where the card was unveiled — “a lot of people wanted it,” and 190 duplicates were issued the first day.

The first duplicate issued in Ames went to Darrell Rensink, director of the Iowa DOT. Frein said he expected about 100 cards to be issued in Ames Wednesday.