I'm a Detective in a specialized police unit that routinely gets called to gain access to locks, be it auto, home or commercial. With some training and alot of practice i've became proficient at these tasks. In 2 years or so I will be looking for a new career and I'm leaning towards locksmithing as a second career. My question is how should I best prepare. .... which books , online stuff etc.
thanks
The best way by far to learn how to be a locksmith is to do what I did, ride along with a locksmith for several months. You could also try to get a job at a shop.
Get to know the locksmiths in your area. Let them know you'll run the night and weekend calls they dont want.
Also get your hands on a bunch of different locks and keep doing what you're doing, practicing.
Is there a locksmith in your area? I'm asking this because you said they call you. Is this something they do when they can't get a locksmith to come out?
routinely gets called to gain
training and alot of
years or so I will be
locksmithing as a second
, online stuff etc.
so you go and open locks. then the locksmith that was called gets screwed out of his opening. thats what used to happen here before the police were stopped. now they do what they are trained to do and have stopped infringing on private enterprise.
to answer your question. good place to start would be the faq for this group.
g'luck
Safe and Loft unit? Locksmithing is a good option, but expect to make a pretty healthy investment in equipment and classes. While you know how to gain entry, as a locksmith you will be called upon to prevent people from gaining entry unless you just want to have an opening service.
The problem with >
Sounds like my uncle Vito when the police started infringing on his protection racket. ;-)
No. Vito just bought the cops off, or did... "udder tings". ;)
The best training is on the job. Simply taking a corrospondance course will teach you just enough to make you dangerous. The best way to learn is to work for someone else for at least a year. the problem with that is that if someone knows you want to learn so you can start your own business, he's going to be a little reluctant to "train his future competition" for obvious reasons.
One suggestion would be to find someone getting ready to retire (possible want's to become a police officer as his second carreer) and offer to buy his business if he is willing to stay on and train you. That way you'll get everything you need to operate the business along with the training. Just a thought.
One more thing to keep in mind... If you are getting ready to retire, I'll assume that you're at least 50. If you don't have a good back, good knees, and good eyes, you may want to reconsider locksmithing.
Bobby
Assuming the poster is for real (not posting from any domain having anything whatsoever to do with law enforcement, so who knows), you should keep in mind that there are some police lock openings which they are not going to call an independent locksmith for, those would include high risk warrant service, pretty much anything to do with any PD which has ones intelligence divisions openings etc. There is a legitimate need for in house police locksmithing/opening. They shouldn't always be looked at as direct and unwelcome competition.
Most customers will be unwilling to pay for the use of a battering ram, spring punch, breaching charge or .45ACP as an entry tool. You'll need to learn replacements for these techniques.
Practice proper form with your hair dryer.
Infringing on private enterprise? Why don't you bitch at them for driving themselves around, thus infringing on professional chaffeur's profits.
Better yet, why not get off your cheap ass and hire a driver?
his
them for driving
chaffeur's profits.
driver?
you must not be self-employed. if you were and had a clue about what you were doing ? you may have understand what the hell I was talking about ?
why don't you troll your boat down another stream ?
English speak not must you!
Why don't you practicie what you preach?
about ?
like I already said troll-boy "you must not be self-employed"
The original question was "If I want to change careers to locksmithing, where should I start".
The right answer is "Start by reading the FAQ, which has a canned answer for this question." Recapping that:
There are low-end correspondence schools which cost a few hundred and are worth about that (ie, they'll give you an intro to the field but not enough to survive on). There are serious schools which cost much more and are worth correspondgingly more (but unless you're lucky enough to be in the right town you'd better plan on travel and housing costs on top of tuition, just as you would for any other kind of serious education). You can invest a significant amount of time and money in books and practice on your own; that works for a small number of people who are sufficiently motivated and who learn well in that mode. Or -- traditional and often still best solution -- you can try to find someone local who is willing to take you on as apprentice.
Theoretically, if you've been on the police force you *ought* to be a good candidate for the latter, as far as assumption of trustworthiness goes. On the other hand, given the bad rep some special detective units have of taking shortcuts around proper law and ethics, this may not be something you want to emphasize on your resume.
You're comparing apple and oranges. That's got to be one of the stupidest analogies I've ever heard. OTOH, I'll bet you'd hear it from the chauffeurs if you started giving free rides to citizens (other than "downtown")
I don't get it. Police won't come out and give a stranded motorist a hot-shot. They won't come out to change a tire. They won't bring a gas can when someone's car runs dry. (All of which require little knowledge or experience. But they think that they are qualified to open a locked car. 'Splain that!
I'm assuming you're a police officer by your defensiveness on the issue so look at it this way...
Let's say you get a call to a parking lot for a stolen car, but when you arrive you find that the party found their car in another part of the lot and left. Now, imagine that because they were gone when you got there, the municipality that your work for docked your pay for the wasted time.
In other words, how would you like it if every time you went to a wild goose chase you didn't get paid for it. You see, you get paid whether your time is productive or not. We don't.
To add insult to injury, when we show up at an opening and the police are already there, a) they don't stop and let us take over the job we were called to do and b) they actually take pleasure in saving the locked out party the money they would otherwise have to pay for a service to be provided. And to hell with us.
We have families to support and bills to pay too.
Walk a mile in my shoes.
Don't feed it.
Tell that to the cop that brought me a roll of tape and some wire cutters when my taillight was out, or the one who gave a friend a ride to the Texaco and back when he was out of gas. I haven't witnessed a police tire-change, but I've occasionally heard the radio calls from one making sure that he wasn't needed more urgently before getting involved in a roadside repair for a stranded motorist.
Maybe you need a PD with better hiring practices, since it sounds like yours is unclear on that 'serve' bit...and a little unclear on what would simply fall under being a good neighbor.
stranded motorist a
won't bring a gas
some wire cutters
ride to the
witnessed a police
from one making
involved in a
sounds like
unclear on what would
the police sure will not do any of those things in my town. if its not in their job description ? the chief of police will not allow it.
g'day
They will here. Time permitting anyway. Probably also depends on the individual department and officer, it's certainly discretionary.
They
acalls
it
town.
depends on the individual
yea, we got a pretty strict chief.
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