The Washington Post reports on a new identification program from the DC government. DC wants to use the “One Card” to track “library accounts, public school attendance, recreation-center use and other services,” and “Metro riders can have a SmarTrip chip implanted in the card.”

The DC government’s chief technology officer says, “The eventual goal is that you’d need only one card across the entire District government.”

Why create a city-wide centralized identification system, mandatory for public school students and government workers but “voluntary” for others? We’ve all heard it before with REAL ID and other broad identification programs: the “papers please” system of One Card would be more efficient and save money.

The Washington Post points out that DC officials “could not offer specifics about those savings for agencies or the city.”

Read the rest of the story here.