DPS/PSB Locksmiths License – Follow up

June 15, 2007

Representative Debbie Riddle
Room EXT E2.208P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768
Fax: 512- 463-1908 & 281- 537-8821

Subject: DPS/PSB Locksmiths License – Follow up (linked via title bar)

Representative Debbie Riddle,

I wrote you last month explaining how the DPS/PSB was imposing unrealistic mandatory continuing education requirements that determine renewal of locksmith licenses. Thank You for having one of your staff respond with an invitation to continue dialogue on this important issue. Since contacting your office I have attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain legal council from law firms which specialize in such litigation and offer pro bono service.

I contacted the Institute of Justice, a non-profit organization and got the following reply, “ Unfortunately, I do not believe there is any realistic way for IJ (or anyone else) to challenge continuing education requirements on constitutional grounds at this time. In a nutshell, the state of the law regarding occupational regulations like these is so horrendous that the government can get away with just about anything -- no matter how stupid, wasteful, venal, anti-competitive, or unfair. In essence, courts have simply declared that evaluating occupational regulations to ensure they are fair, reasonable, and actually likely to achieve their stated ends is none of their business.” (emphasis added)

I tried to enlist a “heavy hitter”, the firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, their being well respected in name recognition and also for their generous pro bono service in Texas and the Houston area. I was disappointed when told, “Unfortunately, this firm will not be able to provide you with legal assistance--pro bono or otherwise. The firm does considerable legal work on behalf of the State of Texas and would not likely be able to circumvent the conflict of interest your representation in this particular matter could create.”

I’m finding out the quality of representation required to enter a challenge to the DPS/PSB’s unreasonable and arbitrarily mandated licensing stipulation either does not exist or is not available by virtue of my limited resources. I cannot believe the intent of the State law which created the means by which locksmiths are licensed in order to “protect” the public interests, which created a board of overseers to implement rules and regulations based on sound judgment and reason; I refuse to believe that this body of government would condone or permit virtual expulsion or forced retirement of a senior working locksmith based entirely on a “created” regulation which has limited, if any, measurable level of safety garnered for the consuming public.

One solution which would satisfy both the intent and the spirit of the law would be to limit the burden placed on working locksmiths to more reasonable parameters; to include exceptions based on a presumption of qualification associated with “tenure”. The free market system has a way of determining which locksmiths work and remain in business and which ones move on to some other form of employment; satisfied customers. The DPS/PSB have attempted to insure perfect tranquility, a state in which every locksmith is qualified to the highest standards in order to protect the professional integrity of the locksmith industry; a lofty and unattainable goal even with the best of intentions.

The many varied avenues of profitability within the locksmith industry have led to specialization in order to remain marketable and gainful. The larger locksmith companies employ many specialists; those who install and work on safes, home security specialists who install and maintain residential locks, industrial and commercial locksmiths who master key large complexes and automotive specialists who apply their skills replacing automotive keys with the newest transponder technologies.

Smaller locksmith companies find a way to carve out a “nitch” in order to be competitive; mine is such a business. The automotive locksmith industry requires a considerable investment to include the latest electronic devices used to program transponder key systems along with the basic “antique” locksmith skills used to generate a mechanical key which will work properly. The skills necessary to generate a mechanical key have been built and improved upon for many years, each layer of skills added upon the foundation of the previous generation of locksmith skills.

Transponder technology has advanced the necessary skills of automotive locksmiths to such a degree that many locksmiths cannot afford to maintain the equipment necessary to service customers and have had to withdraw from this particular segment of the locksmith industry. Each year is met with additional computer software update requirements and, to remain competitive, automotive locksmiths have no choice but to obtain these expensive “tools” and learn how to apply their use in the field; this is the free market’s version of mandatory continuing education.

Locksmiths, it would seem, must also “prove” to the DPS/PSB that they have not “forgotten” the basic skills required which would permit the use of the advanced technology; why else could a working locksmith take any “lesser” required course and satisfy the all encompassing requirements of mandatory continuing education? The wasted and unnecessary requirement of “continuing education” which can be met through taking any number of unrelated “basic” locksmith classes is the issue which appears to be redundant in qualifying for a renewed locksmith license.

The DPS/PSB has not taken into consideration that many locksmiths have no desire to expand their level of expertise; these locksmiths are content to be very competent in the area of service which they provide and let other locksmiths with a wider range of skills grab that portion of the “free market” which is beyond their level of ability and/or desire. This in no wise makes these locksmiths “unacceptable” or creates a situation which would deny a working locksmith the opportunity to renew his/her occupational license.

The market place, comprised of the customer seeking service and the locksmith who can satisfy that need, will determine which locksmiths stay in business; such natural self governing aspects of our lives should not be interfered with through well meaning overseers who wish to protect consumers from unscrupulous and improperly skilled professionals.

Those who enter into the locksmith profession with the intent to take advantage of the public will have only a short time in the market place until they are found out; nothing could or should be done to prevent crimes “before they happen”; one need only view some recent Sci-fi films for examples on how this turns out. No amount of mandatory continuing education would weed out such “undesirables” from among those with integrity and similar skills.

This isn’t much different than a patient who schedules surgery with a gastrointestinal specialist to remove a gall bladder, a gall bladder filled with stones, rather than asking his regular family doctor to step outside of his comfort zone. While both are “qualified” medical doctors, presumably holding a piece of paper stamped and signed, it would be past ridiculous to expect the GP to perform delicate surgery and yet they both are considered honorable and respected professionals.

The fact remains that at one point the decision to “self qualify” must remain at the individual level; trusting in the natural integrity of individuals to remain within the limits of his/her ability to satisfy the specific needs of a given situation. The other half of that equation is also natural; most customers have sense enough to withhold payment until services have been rendered to satisfy a mutually agreed upon conclusion.

The DPS/PSB needs to reconsider the language used in the section devoted to mandatory continuing education to reflect the fact that we live in America where citizens determine a significant portion of life’s challenges based on the assumption that a goodly percentage of fellow citizens are honest, law abiding and intent on providing the best individual efforts available. We are not, at least not yet, some communist country which drastically interferes with an individual's agency bestowed by our Creator, that same benevolent God who inspired Thomas Jefferson to pen the words of our Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,. . .”

I like that part, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”, perhaps those in positions of authority at the DPS/PSB should consider the import of such foundational thoughts which apply to every aspect of government. It is not, nor has it ever been, the intent for those trusted to implement policies regulating a free market system to restrict any God given right, any naturally occurring circumstance in the name of tyranny. These members of our community may have temporarily forgotten their purpose, while intending to serve a wide range of issues that include, predominantly, the “safety” of the consumer; they have taken it upon themselves to trample on God given rights and common sense.

The fact remains an occupational license is required and I’ve resigned myself to the necessity of such licenses. It is imperative that board members who have power over occupational licenses understand the far reaching impact on individual rights as they complete their stewardships with a specific charge to protect the public and the individual locksmiths rights, rights granted by God, not by any government or agency of that government.

“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” Doctrine and Covenants 121:39

This was originally directed to the priesthood of the Church; however, it is true for government’s elected, appointed officers and nearly any other position which subordinates one individual to another. Our nation cannot long survive when it no longer considers that it gains its power from the governed; not the other way around.


I have entered this article in the Carnival for Principled Government sponsored by Dana over at Principled Discovery, each Monday.
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