COEUR d'ALENE - DMV customers might want to bring some crosswords.

Customers at the Kootenai County Driver's License Office have been facing up to 4-hour waits this month, due to complications with the office's new, state-required computer system, training of new staff and seasonal crowds.

"Sure I've received complaints from people," said Sgt. Barry Alleman with sheriff's department support services. "I say, 'It is what it is.' We can only process so many so fast."

The seven-member department staff has faced some issues this spring, Alleman said, due to the Idaho Transportation Department implementing a new system for making driver's licenses.

The state now requires that all new licenses contain fraud-prevention technology, he explained.

"These driver's licenses cannot be duplicated," Alleman said.

But licenses with such technology can only be produced at the Boise ITD office.

This means that instead of licenses being created at the county office and handed out minutes after ID photos are snapped, the county must send customers' records via computer to the Boise office, where licenses are created and mailed to recipients within 7 to 10 days.

A temporary license is printed out for folks to use before the final version arrives.

The new method has required some changes at the Kootenai office.

The office closed a few days in late May to remodel to accommodate the new system.

The department has gone from two computers to four new ones, all funded by the state, and has four individual stations to serve customers, fitted with separate booths, cameras and eye test machines.

The new system has presented some challenges, Alleman said.

For instance, the staff had only one morning of training with the new computer system before opening that same afternoon, he said.

"They had to learn a new system within hours and then perform using it," he said, adding that staff is still adjusting.

The new process also takes more time, he added.

Staff previously eyeballed identification documents before processing a license, he explained.

Now employees must scan the paperwork into the computer system to obtain confirmation from the Boise office.

If an alert returns over the system, staff must call the other office to address it.

"They can be on hold 10 to 15 minutes," Alleman said. "It happens all the time."

The new computers are also linked to the Boise office's central server, which fails almost daily.

"When the Boise system is down, it shuts down our computers," Allen said. "We can't help anybody."

Two of the office's employees are also new and learning the ropes, he said.

Add to that the seasonal rush of teens seeking learner's permits, and the back-up customers who weren't served during the remodeling.

"There are up to 80 waiting sometimes," Alleman said. "We've had up to a 4-hour wait."

Before the remodel, the waiting room usually had about 15 to 20 bodies at a time, he added. Wait time was around half an hour.

The office is still awaiting equipment to set up a fifth service station, he said, which should help.

"We're subject to them (ITD) telling us when we can get more equipment," he said. "I'm hoping next month."

Reed Hollinshead, ITD spokesperson, said the state is working to resolve all issues with the system.

The state changed the license standard, he added, because of high reports of fake IDs.

"As soon as you mention doing this for security purposes to combat identity theft at no additional cost to the public, that pretty much diffuses every argument," Hollinshead said.

On Thursday afternoon at the county license office, Ryan Reeder said he and his 16-year-old daughter, Miranda, had been waiting about an hour and a half for Miranda to take her license exam.

"I expected it to be half an hour," the Coeur d'Alene man said.

He thinks the funds invested in the new station equipment could be better served going toward more staff, he added.

"It seems like the staff is well trained, but instead of spending money on new cameras, they need to get more people," he said.

Sinead Ambro said that she had returned to the Driver's License Office on Thursday after walking away a few days before, when the line was out the door.

"Mad," she said of her reaction to the line. "I wasn't there to wait."

Service was faster on Thursday afternoon, she added.

"But I came right at the end, right before they close," she said.

More staff could help thin the waiting line, Alleman acknowledged.

He would like the county to build a satellite office, in fact, which could allow for extra staff to process relicensing, new licenses, and other department services like registering sex offenders and processing salesman IDs and dealer IDs.

But that costs money, he said, adding that a previous satellite office in Post Falls was closed due to lack of funding.

"It would take at least a year to train the employees and build up the office," he said.

Sandy Delbridge, direct supervisor at the county DMV, asks for customers' patience.

"We're doing our best," she said.

Delbridge does like the new system, she added.

"I know once our employees get a better feel, it will be a lot smoother and be great," she said.