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Prevention is Better Than a Cure

It’s no surprise that in tough economic times crime rises as quickly as unemployment. While I’m certainly not going to advocate crime, people have to eat, and when jobs and finances hit the rails, people will go to extraordinary lengths to make ends meet.

It’s a known phenomenon that crimes, especially fraud and property crime increases during recessions and hard times. People who can’t make a living respectably resort to more unsavory activities in order to feed themselves or their families. There is no limit to the lengths some people will go to put food on the table. You would be surprised at the types of otherwise respectable people caught committing crimes because they had no other way to support themselves. Everyone from elderly people, family men who had not even a speeding ticket before losing their livelihood, mothers who have babies to feed and all sorts of other, normally productive members of society.

If you’re lucky enough to have a decent standard of living, to keep your job or to have somewhere nice to live, you’re more at risk than ever of losing it. Not due to economic reasons, but because someone is going to want what you have. Anything that moves and could be sold to a fence or a pawn shop is at risk. You need decent physical security if you’re going to protect what’s yours, which is where a locksmith comes in.

A locksmith isn’t just someone you call out when you’ve locked yourself out of your home or your car. They are also there to help secure your property and advise on the best ways of doing it. They can even supply and fit access control, and electronic locking systems as well as many types of burglar alarms. Locks have moved on a lot over the past twenty years, and there are many, very sophisticated forms of security that the locksmith can advise on.

Preparing your security is something you really need to do before someone tries to defeat it for you. The trouble is that the vast majority of us would only call one after something had happened, much like the police. They aren’t just there to help you clear up after something, they are also there to help you prevent it. Preventing crime is what the police actually prefer to do. There is much more satisfaction involved in thwarting the attempts of some criminal than trying to track him down and prove that he did the crime. It also helps society at large as we all appreciate low crime rates, safer neighborhoods and feeling safe in our homes.

So get the locksmith round before anything happens because prevention is far better than the cure. It’s so much better for your psychological and physical wellbeing to prevent something happening than attempt to cope with it after it’s happened. Think of it as an investment, not a cost. An investment in your wellbeing as well as the protection of your property. Call that locksmith now, before you have to call them to clean up that mess.

Being Careful when Calling in a Locksmith

Locksmithing is an ancient and honorable profession, one that has been popular in Europe since the middle ages, when locks first became prevalent in society. Ever since then, good locksmiths have helped people protect and access their property, right up to the present day.

The vast majority of locksmiths are genuine, honorable, qualified and legitimate operators. Like many professions than need trust, there are those few who make things difficult for the rest of us. The need for security is one of the basest needs we have. After that of warmth, food and shelter, to feel safe is one of our most basic requirements. However fast or far society advances, that won’t change any time soon and until it does, locksmiths will always be in demand.

So how do you choose a legitimate locksmith? By following a couple of really simple rules and preparing in advance. It stands to reason you’re going to need our services at one point, so it makes sense to research and prepare in advance. Check local businesses, Yellow Pages, industry websites, word of mouth and other sources to find a good tradesman.

A legitimate locksmith will have a registered business address if not a retail store. If you find one over the internet, check the address with your local Chamber of Commerce, or other entity that can verify the existence of a business. That way you have a trail that can be followed if necessary. Put the business name through a search engine and see what’s said about them. Look in particular for forums or other social sites where feedback can be left. They can often be a good source of positive or negative feedback about a tradesman.

Only choose a locksmith that is industry affiliated. That means a member of Associated Locksmiths of America and other state run bodies. A locksmith needs a license to operate, and those licenses are administrated somewhere, check there. If the chosen smith isn’t a member of any trade body, move on.

This might seem a lot of work, but it will only take 10 minutes in reality, and considering you’re trusting the security of your home, car and family to them, it isn’t time wasted. Doing this research now will prevent you panicking and phoning the first one you find. Once you have a “favorite” locksmith, keep his number handy in the home and in your purse or wallet. You might need their services while you’re out or locked out of your home.

A good locksmith will also quote you a price over the phone. It will be only an estimate as we never know what we’re going to find until we get there. If your locksmith of choice hedges or won’t give a quote over the phone, move on. Even if we can’t give you a definite figure we can certainly quote our call-out and dollar per hour as a guide.

Do yourself a favor, stop reading this and go find yourself a legitimate locksmith right now. You’ll be glad you did one day.

Using Access Control Systems

There is much more to being a locksmith than just getting people back into their houses or cars. It used to be that you had to learn each new lock that came onto the market, have the right picks and know how to defeat each one. There weren’t that many new products coming online so it was fairly easy to keep up.

Nowadays we have to almost be computer engineers as well as locksmiths. There are as many electronic locks and access control systems around that we’re expected to know now too. For the most part these are mainly restricted to commercial and business properties, but higher value residential homes are also embracing the electronic age.

Larger businesses have contracts with the security company to maintain their systems, but for smaller businesses or when these security companies prove unreliable, we get called. Not only do these devices protect the property, they also track and trace staff and allow managers to check attendance, timekeeping and movements around the building. There are different types of access control system a locksmith needs to know about, here are the different types.

Magstripe readers are used extensively in commercial properties, otherwise known as swipe card readers. Employees are given a card which corresponds to their names and access level, which permits or denies access to certain parts of the building as the management dictate. They are very efficient and easy to use, which is why they are so popular.

Control panels are mainly used for building access only. They generally consist of a keypad, into which an employee can enter a combination code to access the door. Fairly typical of many external entrances to commercial property.

Biometrics are becoming increasingly popular in access control. Either using retinal or fingerprint scanning to access buildings, or departments as the business sees fit. These are often restricted to high value businesses, laboratories and those with security concerns. They are quite expensive to fit and maintain.

Proximity readers are also quite popular as access controls. These used RFID or other radio medium to broadcast an identity to a proximity control. This then verifies and allows or disallows access to parts of a building. They are useful because they need no interaction from the user in order to work. They can be carried on the person and are picked up as they approach the reader. These are popular, partly thanks to the Disability Discrimination Act and the fact that non-able bodied people had difficulty with many forms of access control.

A locksmith is expected to know most of these systems. It’s impossible to know all of them, which is why we all specialize. There is simple too much on the market right now to know it all, and know it well. Our toolbox now has as much electronic gadgetry in it as traditional locksmithing equipment and we are having to learn computers as well as metalwork. It’s a brave new world in locksmithing.