09/17/16

Background Checks and Fingerprints

By: T F Stern | T F Stern’s Rantings

Recently the State of Texas altered the requirements for the renewal process licensed locksmiths must complete in order to continue applying their skills in what used to be a free market system. The Department of Public Safety/Private Security Bureau, (DPS/PSB) working under their interpretation of HB 4030 passed during the 84^th session, has determined that locksmiths must haveyet another set of official fingerprints submitted along with a complete background check in order to maintain a valid locksmith license.

While visiting my father, holding his aging hand as we watched some insignificant golf show on the television, I noticed his fingers were a bit discolored as his circulatory system no longer functioned at peak efficiency. It’s just a guess; but you could bet the farm the fingerprints on his hands would be the same ones he’s had since birth, the same ones he had when he signed up with the Navy in WWII and the same ones he’ll have when he meets St. Peter on the other side of the veil.

Some where in Washington, as the singer Arlo Guthrie would point out in his tune, Alice’s Restaurant, there’s a study in black and white of his fingerprints…

These identifying marks don’t change all that much over time so it’s beyond my thought process as to why the State of Texas considers it necessary, requiring locksmiths to furnish a fresh set of these prints simply to renew a license… a license which has that very same set of fingerprints already tied to it and filed away collecting dust.

About the only thing such a requirement does is add $25.00 to the cost of doing business for each and every locksmith while accomplishing absolutely nothing towards the State of Texas’ goal, “protection of the public through fair and impartial regulation of the Private Investigations and Private Security Industry”

Then there’s the requirement of another complete and thorough background check in order to maintain an already issued locksmith license; that bothers me too. Actually, the veins in my neck are pulsing and may explode while thinking about this.

The State of Texas conducts a complete and thorough background check of each individual prior to issuing a locksmith license. If the State wants to find out whether or not a licensed locksmith has committed a noteworthy criminal act since the last time he/she went through the licensing process then all the State’s investigators would have to do would be to bring up a standard criminal check on their computer, not much different than the way police officers are able to find out the same information while on patrol; it takes only a minute, sometimes less.

If someone can explain why the State of Texas considers locksmiths…locksmiths who’ve already been fingerprinted, had their background checked six ways to Sunday and then issued a license…if someone can explain why the State of Texas considers locksmiths a threat or danger to the public… Could you hand me my blood pressure medicine; those veins are swelling some more.

Yesterday I received an email from the DPS/PSB letting me know my latest renewal efforts were finally accepted and that my pocket sized wallet card would be sent in a timely manner.

Do you see why the updated renewal process bothers me?

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.

07/14/15

Yet another open letter to locksmiths

By: T F Stern
The Moral Liberal

I’m directing this to the newly appointed member of the Texas Department of Public Safety/Private Security Bureau (DPS/PSB), the Honorable C. D. Sims, an accomplished locksmith in his own right; however anyone associated with the Locksmith Industry is invited to consider what is presented. There’s been a burr under my saddle, so to speak, ever since the locksmith industry was hog tied into being licensed so many years ago and placed under (the thumb of) the DPS/PSB with Not One Single Locksmith on that governing board.

Forgive my sense of history; but we fought a war over the idea of taxation without representation.

Saying it’s about time a locksmith was on the DPS/PSB would be an under statement; so without wasting any more time, C. D., (the rest of you Honorable board members might want to pay attention as well), how about addressing an issue which has been ignored or didn’t seem important to those who have gone before you.

Mandated continuing education hours in order to maintain an existing Locksmith License

I wrote an article back in 2010, Subjects of Texas, regarding the increase of mandated continuing educations hours required by the DPS/PSB in order to maintain a valid locksmith license. At the time all locksmiths, regardless of how many years they’d been active in the Locksmith Industry, all were required to include 8 hours of locksmith related courses, taken only via approved instructors in the State of Texas; however, that increased to 16 hours without any justification.

What I wrote then still applies:

The DPS/PSB cannot justify its expensive and time consuming requirements, and I might add; requirements which do not serve to protect an unsuspecting public from scoundrels posing as legitimate locksmiths because those individuals who have acquired a locksmith license are not a threat and never were a threat to an unsuspecting public. The DPS/PSB has hijacked a part of the private sector and enslaved them with petty Lilliputian rules and regulations which serve only to guarantee permanent employment for DPS/PSB employees; a typical bureaucracy and drain on an already weak economy.

On more than one occasion I’ve submitted a proposal to the DPS/PSB, along with this same suggestion through the Greater Houston Locksmith Association (GHLA), to the effect that licensed locksmiths who have been performing their skills for 10 years or more should be exempted from mandated continuing education courses in order to maintain that license.

This isn’t to say that locksmiths intending to stay up to date or ahead of their competition should not endeavor to improve their skills via continuing education courses which are available in a wide number of important areas; only that the State of Texas should have no say on what should or should not be mandated once a locksmith has proven his or her skills for 10 years or more. This recommendation fell on deaf ears and was not acted upon.

Recently an article by George F. Will appeared in the Washington Post, The 110 year-old case that still inspires Supreme Court debates. That particular case was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1905 Lochner decision which dealt with unionized bakeries attempting to mandate, through government intervention, the number of hours small family owned bakeries could work in order to compete in the market place under arbitrarily contrived figure set by the unions and passed along by the State.

The Lochner case found in favor of the small bakeries, specifically individuals going about, as best they could, supporting themselves and determining for themselves, how many hours to work, sleep or maintain a healthy work environment.

While the ruling was not unanimous, it did establish, or more accurately, re-established and “affirmed the United States’ foundational doctrine: Majorities cannot legislate away individuals’ constitutional rights for preposterous or protectionist reasons.”

In a recent opinion concerning occupational licensing in Texas, Justice Don Willett of the Texas Supreme Court said:

“Lochner meant that government must prove the public necessity of its restrictions of economic liberty. Sensible judicial deference to government regulations does not require judicial dereliction of its duty to gaze skeptically on government’s often ridiculous rationalizations of them. Since the New Deal, when courts abandoned protection of economic liberty, government has felt no obligation to produce evidence of the rationality of its restrictions. So, disreputable reasons go unchallenged.” (emphasis added)

So I once again turn this unsavory mandated continuing education issue back to you Honorable members of the DPS/PSB.

Can the State of Texas, specifically the DPS/PSB PROVE the public necessity of its restrictions of economic liberty? Mind you, locksmiths have already PROVEN they are capable and trustworthy by virtue of the fact they have already obtained a Locksmith License. It is up to the State to PROVE that individual locksmiths cannot continue to serve the public without the additional hours of mandated continuing education courses.

Unless it is the board’s contention that locksmiths forget most of what they have learned over a lifetime’s investment in their chosen area of specialty, then it’s pointless to rationalize this ridiculous and expensive waste of time and effort on any ‘journeyman locksmith’, a mandate which produces no measurable added security for the public.

The State of Texas should not be in the business of violating any individual’s God given rights of doing what they can to support themselves and their families. It’s time to eliminate mandated continuing course requirements for any licensed locksmith with 10 years or more experience.

T.F. Stern

03/8/15

Texas Locksmith’s Eyes Beginning to Open

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

Years ago I did my best to convince my fellow locksmiths that jumping on the licensing bandwagon was a mistake. During a heated discussion while attending a meeting organized by the Associated Locksmiths of America (ALOA) one fellow wanted me to step out back and settle our differences the old fashioned way; maybe that would have been fun in my younger days.

We were told the state had already decided the locksmith industry was going to be licensed and so we had better come up with a plan to submit to the legislature, one that would be favorable toward our needs. That plan was approved by members of the Texas Locksmith Association (TLA) board and passed around so everyone in attendance could get a look at it. Unfortunately that wasn’t the bill which the legislators were handed.

I couldn’t say for sure what happened in the back rooms of Austin; but you can bet the farm that the ALOA and Alarm Service Industry folks had their hand in the deal since these were the same folks who’d insisted the locksmith industry get licensed to begin with. We were placed under the Department of Public Safety held in check by a bureaucracy which is now called the Private Security Bureau (DPS/PSB), a board of appointees which supposedly represents the interests of the entire Security Industry, more particularly, the Alarm Services Industry; well shucky-dern, isn’t that a coincidence.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since that time; but there has yet to be one locksmith sitting on the DPS/PSB, something which should tell you locksmiths are not being given any representation when it comes to laying down the rules.

I expect one day a locksmith will eventually sit on the DPS/PSB as promised so many years ago; but then again, consider who that individual might be… You can count on it being a sycophant willing to go along with whatever the powers that be direct, just like the TLA and GHLA board members of the past. No thank you, let’s just step outside and settle this like we should have done so many years ago.

Licensing serves a couple of purposes, neither of which protects the public from unscrupulous vendors. First, licensing limits competition for those who are already covered and secondly it acts as a revenue generator for the State which is more than happy to destroy the free market system (socialism/communism) by enslaving those required to obtain and then maintain a license. All cost increases to a business are then passed along to the consumer who must also pay for a protection racket run by the State which doesn’t provide protection; not much different than protection rackets run by the Mafia.

Fast forward to the present, specifically a message from the president of the Greater Houston Locksmith Association (GHLA) found in the monthly newsletter.

“At the TLA Convention, the legislative update from DPS/PSB was simply about the locksmith laws that those in the industry are already aware of them. As an organization, we need to be prepared to take a different approach when it comes to the lobbyist in Austin, Texas. It takes money to see changes and not be ignored by the P.S.B. A different approach is much needed.” (emphasis added)

After all these years GHLA board members have finally figured out that the DPS/PSB folks have been ignoring them. The DPS/PSB is good at ignoring locksmiths and imposing mandates arbitrarily, mandates which are costly in both time and effort and do absolutely nothing to improve the industry or provide any measure of ‘promised security’ for the public.

Just a couple of weeks ago while attending the TLA convention in Plano, Texas, the one mentioned in the president’s message, I met with a couple of new GHLA board members. My purpose for attending was to represent the Society Of Professional Locksmiths (SOPL) and to encourage those in the TLA and GHLA to become members and support this national locksmith association; one which wasn’t under the thumb of the Alarm Services Industry or the ALOA.

SOPL has on-line training courses which cover a wide variety of locksmith related items and are cost efficient. If these classes were to be approved and shared at meetings held by either the TLA or GHLA for the purpose of obtaining Mandated Credit Hours to maintain an individual’s locksmith license, members would be that much better off.

I introduced myself to one of the new board members who didn’t know me; no surprise since I prefer tending to my business rather than attending local meetings, and explained that he needed to properly represent locksmiths along with some history (some of this was a real eye opener to him), history which can be reviewed by reading articles I’ve written on the subject.

I drove home the point that it was important to stop dancing with the enemy, the enemy being the DPS/PSB, that our going along quietly had done nothing to improve the individual locksmith’s position and that we were in fact 2^nd Class citizens that had no voice.

Maybe, just maybe some locksmith’s eyes are starting to open. They are beginning to understand that the State is not our friend and that somebody needs to stand up to them instead of paying a lobbyist to plead mercy at the feet of our Puppet Masters (DPS/PSB).

A complimentary copy of this article will be sent to the Texas Locksmith Association (TLA), the Greater Houston Locksmith Association (GHLA) as well as the Society Of Professional Locksmiths (SOPL).

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.