To help crackdown on the number of untrained and often unlicensed locksmiths running around California, an amendment to the Assembly Bill 2592 was passed in March of 2008. Basically it lays out the guidelines for how a locksmith business can be run, advertised, and the services it can perform.

Performing locksmith work without a license can get you a $10,000 fine and a year in prison. As it states in the excerpt below:

  6980.13.  (a) Any person who violates any provision of this

chapter, or who conspires with another person to violate any

provision of this chapter, or who knowingly engages a nonexempt or

unlicensed locksmith, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a

fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in a

county jail for not more than one year, or by both that fine and

imprisonment, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

You can read the whole bill here:

Assembly Bill 2592

If you’ve ever looked for a locksmith in a Google search the number of results you will see is staggering. Some of the results are links to the direct site, while many others are links to links of sites. I looked up “Locksmiths in Los Angeles, CA” and got around 400,000 results. You would think this would be an easy task. But it can be an endless cycle. You go to one page that says locksmith, but it is just a page of links to other locksmith sites, clicking one of those links takes you to yet another page of links.

What a hassle! And you know there can’t be that many locksmiths in the area, most of these sites are probably scamming sites for companies no where near Los Angeles or California for that matter.

You could spend hours if not days trying to find a locksmith that actually has an office in the Los Angeles area. Many of the locksmith scammers list addresses that turn out to be empty lots, abandoned buildings, or completely unrelated active businesses. So what they say is true. “Look for a locksmith, before you need one”.

You can’t even search for reviews, since you just keep getting the same sites for locksmith businesses. Sometimes you will get lucky and find some vague reviews for a company, but not often enough in my opinion.

To work as a locksmith or run a locksmith business in the state of California , you must be licensed by the state.

The requirements for applying for a Locksmith Company License are as follows:

All applicants must submit

1.  An application with the $75 application and licensing fee
2. Two Recent Passport quality photos (of yourself)
3. A Locksmith Company Live Scan form that has been signed by a Live Scan Operator.
4. A $32 fingerprinting fee for the Department of Justice and a $19 fee for FBI fingerprinting.

Once all that information has been gathered, it will be sent to the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services for processing. If everything goes well , you will receive your License and a copy of the Locksmith act in the mail.

To work for a Locksmith company you must be able to pass a criminal history background check. You must also be fingerprinted by the DOJ and FBI as listed above at the same fees and get the signed Live Scan form. All of that information must be sent in with your application and a $20 registration fee.  When you have submitted your application package you will be issued a 120 day temporary registration , unless you have a criminal record.

This is just a brief look at the process.