I am currently working for a locksmith company that has been in business in Virginia for over 26 years.  We have a very large customer base that is mostly from repeat business.  We already performed background checks on our employees and had bonds in place to help our customer's feel safe and secure using our services.  We do all we can to abide by the current laws in place to (1) run a legitimate business, and (2) satisfy the customer's request with the utmost level of security and satisfaction.  We must be doing something right, because we are still in business with no complaints. 

Coming from the construction world, I was greatly involved in the training and licensing of tradesman, handled through the DPOR agency.  I dealt daily with apprentices (with schooling and hands-on training) checked on their training vs. hands on training and with the schooling agency  the businesses employing these employees and the DPOR and VDOL licensing/training requirements.  I feel that locksmiths should be trained and licensed in Virginia.  But I feel the law was passed a little too quickly without the proper people involved to assist with knowledge and experience to get a system setup that will be beneficial to ALL businesss involved in the State of Virginia.  Northern Virginia may have had some problems with phony locksmith, but why penalize the whole State in a rush measure to set forth regulations to be adhered to in a short time without doing it correctly.  The DCJS has been bonbarded with this new regulation and cannot keep up with the demand of all the requirements of reporting.  To date, you still cannot pull up the DCJS website and check the status of licensing for all locksmith and service providers, but yet we are told we are responsible to verifiy these items before working for the company.  Without this information at our disposal, we are losing business.  If we work for them and they are not licensed properly, we are the ones that get the fine.  Why should we have to police all the regulations??  This is very time consuming and aggravating when you are trying to run a very busy business.  I do not blame the DCJS because they are understaffed to handle this kind of overload.  I just feel this bill needs to be re-addressed and reformatted to accommodate all involved - and do it fairly.  No one should be exempt if they do any services that are to be performed by a locksmith (cutting a key, rekeying a lock, installing a lock, opening a car, programming a key, etc.) as the box stores.  Let's rethink this bill and get in set in place to properly benefit all involved.