A state computer glitch gave police the mistaken impression that a hoard of illegal drivers had taken to South Carolina's roads Tuesday morning.

When officers tried to check driver records during traffic stops, State Law Enforcement Division computers erroneously flagged dozens of motorists as having suspended licenses, authorities said.

As it turned out, the problem wasn't with SLED but with data it was receiving. Officials traced the glitch to the Division of Motor Vehicles' problem-plagued Project Phoenix, a $40 million computer upgrade launched last summer.

The problem originated in computer servers dedicated for law enforcement use, but the cause remains a mystery, said Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

"Nobody has a real grasp of what the problem was," he said.

SLED quickly alerted law enforcement agencies to the problem. Some departments chose to temporarily forgo charging anyone with driving under suspension. Others opted to hold off on charges until they could verify the violations.

Authorities said they knew of no one wrongly arrested because of the malfunction, but the glitch did create headaches for confused officers and prolonged some traffic stops for frustrated drivers.

"It just created some additional work for (dispatchers) who really had to scrutinize very closely the information they were getting back," said Capt. Dana Valentine, a Charleston County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. The DMV's system spit out bad information for several hours until 11 a.m., Gaulden said.

"My understanding is that the problem has been solved, but we will continue to monitor the system just to make sure it remains solved," he said.

Valentine said the problem surfaced intermittently, giving some motorists a clean of bill health and then wrongly flagging others as driving illegally. Deputies experienced similar problems with the system Monday, she said.

Charles Francis, a Charleston police spokesman, said officers noticed the problem when driving records failed to include any reason for licenses being suspended. Francis and several dispatchers ran their own valid driver's licenses through the system and all came back as suspended, he said.

After encountering problems at a couple of traffic stops, Mount Pleasant police temporarily stopped writing tickets for driving under suspension unless they could verify the violation through other means, said Capt. Frank Riccio.

The DMV embarked on Project Phoenix to make it easier for people to do business with the agency. But the system created long lines and waits at DMV offices. And auditors throughout the state complained that the computer system caused substantial problems for them, transmitting inaccurate information about car registrations used in writing property tax bills.

Gaulden said many of the bugs have been worked out. He also pointed out that customers now only have to wait an average of 20 minutes for service.

"With any new system, you're going to have problems that were either unpredictable or unexpected," he said. "We've had our share."

Glenn Smith covers police and crime. Contact him at 937-5556 or at gsmith@postandcourier.com.