Megacenter Opens In Tulsa To Help Process New IDs

Tulsa's new DPS Megacenter is now open near 71st and Lewis. The goal is to help get rid of the backlog of people who have been waiting to renew their driver's license or get a Real ID.

"I'm here to get the real ID," said Clifford Antee. "There's no appointments, it's walk-ins. They've got plenty of stations. I mean you can see a bunch of stations set up."

Antee lives in Oologah and his driver's license doesn't expire until 2024 but figured he would go over the new megacenter while he's in town. A lot of people had the same idea. "Typically with our tag agent partners and us-we do about 5,000 across the state of Oklahoma. The megacenters are averaging roughly 500 to 600 a day," said Pat Mays.

Mays is the Chief of Administration for Public Safety and said the state has been struggling to catch up on licenses because of the pandemic. "When that occurred, we had to close our doors for a couple weeks, but it put us behind pretty bad and trying to get caught up has just been a real challenge. That on top of trying to get everybody a real ID has been a challenge," said Mays.

He said to make the process faster, make sure you have all of the required paperwork before heading to the megacenter. He said once you get in front of a tag agent, it should take about 20 minutes. Antee said the longest part for him was waiting for an open station but said it's worth the wait.

The mega center opens every morning at 6:30 and closes at 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They'll have this location open until January 7th.