Lynchburg, VA - Next time you head to DMV, leave your smile at home. Virginia is now one of four states enacting a "no smile" policy for your driver’s license photo. This is actually a serious thing. You better wipe that smile off your face because the DMV says this is all about safety.

But for some not smiling just doesn't feel the same. "That picture that they took is not me," Michele Haberle from Rustburg said.

"I think people like to smile, I don't think people like to run around necessarily with a gloomy face, or just looking sad," John Castellano from Lynchburg said.

The DMV says you don't have to look unhappy- you can grin, you just can't show your pearly whites.

"It's hard I felt like a convicted felon actually," Haberle said.

The DMV is hoping the smile-less photos will help catch criminals. New facial recognition software can read neutral expressions, but it can't read teeth.

"To me it's a facial expression whether it's criminal or not," Castellano said.

Sometimes the price you have to pay for protection is expression.

"It's your picture, you're the one who has to live with it," Amanda Nawrocki from Lynchburg said.

This rule is all part of the driver's license changes that took effect in March. But as of now the facial recognition software hasn't been installed. When it is, they want to be ready so they've implemented the rules now.

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