Missouri is using a new national database to keep drivers from driving here if they’ve lost their privileges in other states. Revenue Department spokesman David Griffith says the national driver registry keeps people from going from state to state when they lose their licenses. For example, he says, if someone with a license that has been suspended or revoked in another state tries to get a license here, the person is told to clear things up in the other state before making another request in Missouri.

Griffith doesn’t have the number of drivers who’ve been denied Missouri licenses because the registry shows they’re suspended or revoked in other states.

He says the department also consults a national database when a foreign citizen applies for a Missouri driver’s license. Griffith says the department checks with the Systematic Alien Verification of Entlement, or SAVE, database before issuing anything more than a temporary license to somone claiming to be in this country legally.