MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For the past couple of months, WREG has been tracking long lines at Department of Motor Vehicles offices across West Tennessee.
In May, those lines were mostly due to new requirements for real IDs.
But over the past few weeks, we’ve heard from viewers who say they are still playing the waiting game.
“You have a crowd of people that have been here all day, they are on number 853, it’s just terrible, it’s too many people, they are giving you the run arounds. You have to get out line, comeback, just terrible,” said Porsha Brooks, Memphian.
Brooks was one of the hundreds of people packed into the Summer Avenue DMV trying to reinstate her license, she waited over three hours to be helped, just to be told she didn’t have the correct paperwork
Bobby Johnson was also trying get his license reinstated and like Porsha, he waited for hours just to be told he didn’t have the correct paperwork.
“I don’t really know what’s going on, I’ve been doing this process for the last three and a half weeks just to get reinstated, and I still haven’t gotten reinstated because my ID where I just moved from doesn’t coincide with where I moved to,” said Bobby Johnson, another Memphian.
A man told WREG anonymously that he took one look at the line inside the Summer Avenue DMV location, turned around and left.
“As soon as I walk in, I don’t see no seats, there’s nowhere to sit, line is long,” said the man.
Across town, at the Shelby Drive DMV location, it’s not much different as Sheena Ward waited over three hours to get a new ID.
“The movement is very slow if you got somewhere better to go then you go there because right now it’s hellish,” said Ward, Memphis resident.
As far as making an appointment for the DMV, it’s nearly impossible, out of the five DMV locations in Shelby County, you can currently only book a driver’s license or realID appointment at the DMV’s Bartlett location, their earliest available appointment, over a month away, on September 19th.
“Schedule your appointment and have patience, get your water and have patience because you’re going to be here all day,” said Brooks.
We reached out to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security on the reason for the long lines at the DMV, but we haven’t heard back