by nite0wl » 3 May 2015 13:57
If only NYC were as reasonable. In NYC it is possible to get a locksmith license, if you have a ton of spare cash and are already very good friends with several licensed locksmiths.
Most of the licensing procedure is pretty standard for any license from the city (background check, fingerprinting, etc, with generally less than $200 in costs and fees), the big roadblock is the unusual addition of a special 'professional qualification' which requires that you fulfill it in one of three ways:
1. Membership in a specific local union (which hasn't existed for over a decade according to a former member I tracked down)
2. A certificate of completion from a NYC-DCA (Department of Consumer Affairs) accredited training program
3. At least two letters of support from two locksmiths with current NYC locksmith licenses
Number 3 is difficult because most locksmiths in the area are not eager to see any competition and tend to run small shops with few employees (and most of whom seem to be related in the cases where I have enquired). I understand not wanting to see a new competitor since they are already undercut on hardware sales and key duplication by hardware stores and on installations by the supers, managers, and handy-men of the large residential and commercial buildings which make up most of the local market.
So number 2 should be pretty simple right? Go to any of the very affordable training programs run by local trade schools, the city university system, or maybe one or two of the large national correspondence courses, right? Wrong. According to the DCA there is one, and only one, accepted training course and it costs around three times as much as most of the other training programs.
