By Christine Graf
For more than two decades, Center for Security has been providing locksmith and security services to residential and commercial customers throughout the Capital Region.
“My father (Tom Walsh) started on his own in the 1990s and then went into business with his partner, Scott Hogan,” said Patrick Walsh, manager and technician at Center for Security.
After outgrowing their first shop in Clifton Park, the business relocated to a larger space at 1659 Route 9 in Clifton Park. The partners later added a second location at 16 Main Street in Queensbury.
The company’s 15 employees have decades of experience, most having been with the company for many years.
“We’ve had the same group of guys working for us for a long time,” said Walsh. “There’s a lot of on-the-job training, and it takes years to learn the ins and outs of locks. You learn a lot of it by being out on the road—learning how to pick locks in different ways.”
Center for Security offers a wide variety of locksmith services, installing and re-keying locks, cutting keys, and assisting customers who have been locked out of their cars or homes.
“We do a lot of automotive lock outs and fit keys to cars when people lose their keys. It’s astounding how many people lose keys and don’t have a backup set,” said Walsh.
For the majority of car lock-outs, Center for Security technicians are able to travel to the customer’s location, performing on-site service. The company has nine service vans, with technicians on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We usually have three lock-outs a day, and we drive right out to where the vehicle is,” said Walsh. “But some cars have to be towed back to our showroom—higher end-cars like BMWs.”
BMWs as well as some other luxury cars, are more complicated to unlock than their less expensive counterparts. At the opposite end of the spectrum are some Kia and Hyundai models, ones with keys that don’t have transponders.
“That’s why they are the number-one most stolen cars,” said Walsh.
For those in need of a backup set of car keys, Center for Security offers car key duplication services. Because car key technology is constantly changing, the cost of replacement keys has risen significantly. For some makes and models, replacement keys can cost upwards of $350.
Center for Security’s product line includes a large selection of safes and vaults, and the company offers 24/7 emergency safe opening, combination changes, and safe and vault repair. They also sell and service alarm systems, closed circuit surveillance systems, and a full line of handicap door openers, buttons, sensors, receivers, and transmitters. The company also installs commercial entrance doors–aluminum storefront entries and hollow metal replacements. Rounding out their extensive product offerings is replacement glass for commercial and residential customers.
“We’ve expanded so much in the last fifteen to twenty years,” said Walsh when discussing the products and services the company offers.
Although they do sell and install the latest electronic locks for homeowners, Walsh said they recommend “old school” locks for residential applications.
“We tend to tell people to go mechanical because those locks are less likely to fail. We like to stay with the old school locks—ones with keys and deadbolts—because electronics do fail.”
As an example, Walsh said homeowners may find themselves unable to enter their homes when the power goes out or their WiFi isn’t working.
For commercial customers, Center For Security recommends keyless entry systems that feature card access and audit control.
“You can see who scanned in and when. You can also set it up to clock employees in and out,” said Walsh, noting that the technology for these systems continues to evolve.
For more information, visit centerforsecurity.com.