One Lock. Six Missions.

One Lock. Six Missions.

To those uninitiated to the world of Non-Destructive Entry (NDE), the concept of picking open a lock is simply a stand-alone concept. But, to professionals in different fields, the concept of dealing with a locked obstacle is only one part of a much larger landscape. The acceptable risk, the time pressure, evidence concerns, the environment and the operational objectives all shape a wildly different set of methodologies long before a tool and technique is selected. The mechanical lock doesn’t change - the mission does. To ask “how do I pick this lock” without including the context, is like asking “which vehicle should I buy?” And, if someone answers the question without context, then their answer is, at best, academic only.

Every mission optimizes different considerations when dealing with locked obstacles. Locksmiths are income and expense sensitive, putting current and future business considerations first. Locksport hobbyists (or competitors) are in fact interested in technical mastery, but have almost no limitations on any other fronts, putting enjoyment first and foremost. First responders (medical, law enforcement, fire, etc.) must consider the safety of life first and foremost for both the practitioner and for their victims (and even suspects). SWAT operators have a much heavier risk burden for the choices that they make, especially when time is limited and when the tactical advantage takes center stage. Military tactical operations are similar to LE SWAT operations but they exist far away from support structures and often within a very different combat environment. Covert Operators also have their own unique mission purposes, and almost always keep the avoidance of discovery at the forefront of their decision making. None of these philosophy sets are right or wrong, or better or worse than one another. But, they would all be amiss if they blindly applied one philosophy to a different field without adjustment.

Locksmiths. Primary mission - solve the customer’s problem within an appropriate business transaction for both parties. Some key indicators for success are: did the locksmith open the lock, or otherwise solve the lock-related problem, is additional damage avoided, does the customer feel happy about the interaction, are you likely to get repeat business, is the service call and payment information completed and documented correctly, was the workflow relatively efficient. The type of knowledge base that a locksmith needs, before they even begin their first job, is quite large, and can span only one or two disciplines, or many more disciplines at once. They need to understand how to use multiple industrial machines and the must have equipment at their brick and mortar storefront, or in their van, in order to complete their tasks. They must know about opening locks non-destructively and destructively, and how to make repairs and adjustments to systems that aren’t working properly. Their decision making process must constantly keep their customer satisfaction in focus, as well as making decisions concerning tools/techniques and outcomes that keep the service calls profitable. Their operations have no concern for combat tactics, no concern for stealth, their operational environment is able to adjusted to fit their service call needs, and they are often able to plan work orders in advance, or to cancel work orders in progress (even at a loss) if they are unhappy with their customer.

Locksport. Practicing lock opening for personal enjoyment. Measuring success includes: being able to open up the same lock an increasing number of times, and with decreasing timelines, being able to open more difficult locks, continual learning of lock design components, and doing so at your own pace and with whichever type of budget you choose. No safety concerns. No risk for failure. No administrative, business, or legal documentation required. Logistical considerations have no limitations; practitioners may invest a small or large budget to this practice, and they may place as many tools at their disposal as they like, or they may only desire a small selection of limited tools. They don’t need to invest any energy into the carry of, or the deployment of, their opening tools. And there is no safety concern for any party at any time. Even for competitive locksport, the environment is always safe and comfortable.

First responders. For first responders that do engage in non-destructive entry methods when dealing with locked obstacles, the primary focus is always the protection of life. This means that lock picking can fail, or can be entirely avoided or aborted, and the mission can still end up being a resounding success. If smart NDE is to be assessed and graded, it would involve looking at the speed in which the entry took place, it would also involve whether the types of tools and techniques used had any increase or decrease on any other part of the mission, as well as assessing whether the entry specialist chose an attack vector (entryway) that had an increase or decrease on any other part of the mission. The overall arbiter for rating the NDE methods is whether it helped or hurt the mission. The skills that first responders need (responders that do utilize NDE) require an ease of onboarding and a short onboarding time overall. Responders also require that the selection of tools, and the application of techniques, and the decision making process, all be simple. Responders also need to stack the deck in their favor with tools and techniques that they are likely to encounter, with less time spent on obscure tools and techniques for obscure locks. Responders also need to be able to apple skills while multitasking scene safety, and while working with others, communicating with others, and constantly assessing and reassessing their progress in relation to the ever-changing mission and environment. Covertness can sometimes come into play, but is not likely a heavy consideration at the basic responder level. Finally, repeat access and planned future access into locked sites is usually outside of the responder-level scope.

SWAT (domestic law enforcement). The primary function of NDE is the gaining and keeping of the tactical advantage…during the breach. Measuring the success of NDE here has much more to do with integration to team efforts, and is focused on the victim still but also on stopping the threat. Any decision that impedes the stopping of the threat will be heavily discouraged. While most SWAT operations do end up with a majority of their time being spent in the overt-phase, it does become more likely here that short-durations of covertness will occur, and this is where NDE can really shine. While most of the uninformed consider lock picking to be a slow-speed application, NDE can often be much faster (and much less energy dependent) than other forms of destructive breaching. During operations, SWAT operators usually only have access to the things on their bodies. This is a huge physical and logistical consideration when deciding which tools to routinely carry. Less important to most SWAT operators is the concern for causing property damage, the concern for managing a tool and training budget, the concern for making any repairs, and any concern for continued covertness or for leaving evidence of their actions.

Military tactical operations. The primary mission is always to achieve all mission objectives while in a combat environment. Success is measured first and foremost on overall mission completeness. As the mission allows, everything else is likely to be judged in a secondary or lower manner. Some other considerations for grading: speed, preservation of evidence, alerting other enemy forces, and team survival. Military operators need to know how to adapt, and how to do more with less. They are often under even more of a logistics strain than domestic SWAT operators since they are not only operating away from their office or headquarters, but within an entirely hostile environment. This means that logistics are even more limited. The tools must be incredibly vetted if they are to be carried. The skills must be onboarded extremely quickly and must be extremely reliable. And the skills must have a high probability of being applicable within the area of operations for the military operators. Military operators have no concern for property damage, and as long as they are operating under military approval, they don’t have any concern for legal issues, budget, or other types of documentation. Perfection also isn’t judged, as long as mission objectives are still completed without any extra undue strain.

Covert operators. This is where NDE, by necessity, becomes the star of the show; the primary mission here is to gain access without revealing that access has occurred. Measuring success would involve the complete avoidance of utilizing destructive entry. Success may include the leaving of some small amounts of unavoidable trace evidence, but minimizing this is preferred. Covert entries also stretch the timeline, often requiring advanced recon ahead of time, as well as planned entry timing, prepared paths of movement, and planned exit timing with prepared routes. While covert operators certainly benefit from having a wide foundation of NDE skills, if they can’t open a specific critical lock on an operation, the entire operation may fail; this makes the high-level of specific skills essential for success. While keeping NDE skills at the forefront of mission focus, operators must also multitask the hiding of their presence, and the hiding of forensics while employing their entry methods. Speed may or may not be a factor, as some covert operations may still be successful even if they take months or years to gain NDE access. But, it is likely that covert operators have a much longer onboarding timeline when it comes to mastering the skills of NDE, and they are much more likely to carry the best tools money can buy, and they are also likely to have access to experienced trainers and mentors. With most other fields discussed here, there are other parts of the overall mission that can mark a success even if lock picking is altogether unsuccessful. For covert operators, the complete implementation of NDE through specific locked obstacles is the very first filter through which success may be measured.

When someone asks “how do I pick this lock?”, it may be a true and accurate response to lay out a plan that takes multiple years and tens of thousands of dollars into research and development with hundreds of hours of practice time…for a high-level covert operation. It may also be an appropriate response to the question to recommend using generic bolt cutters. To give the best answer, the questions that first must be answered relate to the reason that the lock is being assessed in the first place. Many people are surprised to learn that there are often dozens of ways to destructively open a specific lock, as well as dozens of ways to utilize NDE on that same lock; this results in two dozen entry options. The mission objectives will help to steer which tools and techniques are utilized, and just as importantly, which order the techniques will be attempted in should the first technique fail or take too long.

Even if two different professionals from two different fields both require access through the same lock, and even if they both have the same tools on hand, and even if they both choose the same two or three entry methods in the same order, there will still be a difference in application if one of them is involved in a domestic life saving operation and if one of them is a covert operator breaking into a foreign embassy. Even with the same techniques on the same type of lock, there are still decisions to be made to your focus, your team communication, the time that you will spend with each technique before reassessing your progress, and how much evidence you are trying to avoid leaving on the lock.

A special forces operational team might be moving towards the outer perimeter of a rural military target in a foreign country, in a non-permissive combat environment, and their only introduction to lock picking might have been an otherwise useful training course…for locksmiths. Imagine if the operator looks at the lock and thinks “Oh well, I guess we’ll have to go loud and destructive because I can’t pick this lock” when the real answer was a simple bypass method that the covert entry community is foundationally aware of.

Imagine being an actual covert operator who understands locksmith operations as well as high-level competitive lock picking, but who has been leaving forensic evidence inside the target locks they have opened because they were never mentored by trainers who understand trace evidence minimizing. It is possible to be lucky for a long time before realizing that there is a huge hole in your capability skill set.

Choosing training that matches your mission. Instead of asking “where can I go to learn lock picking?”, ask “which course is going to help me achieve mission success when it comes to lock picking and non-destructive entry?” Another huge question that must be asked by those who are interested in learning is “and how will I measure the effectiveness of attending this specific course?” If someone attends an inexpensive and non-specialty introductory lock picking course, and they find themselves needing to access a lock non-destructively, and they fail…would that mean that their course was ineffective? Of course the answer is “it depends.” The very short answer is that those seeking NDE training should understand that training can be provided under many different frameworks, and that an attempt should be made to try to get as close to the appropriate framework as possible when you are starting your journey. Just like many other skills, if lock picking / NDE is to be utilized on an ongoing basis, training and retraining is another factor to be considered.

Special Forces operators routinely receive competent training in all sorts of unique fields, but how often do they actually receive training that is a perfect one-to-one match within the context that they will be applying said skills? A good training course for one profession may be a big miss for another profession, even if the topic applies to both. And X-amount of funding spent on a less expensive course, doesn’t mean that you’ve saved money vs a more expensive course; what’s much more important than the overall amount spent is the potency. Buying a bottle of a 1% liquid solution for half the price of a 100% liquid solution is not 50% in savings.

The wrong training can leave an operator believing they have a capability that they don't actually possess in their operational context. Going destructive when NDE is more beneficial to keep team members alive and to increase or keep the tactical edge would be a lack in operational capabilities and decision making. Breaking a tool inside a keyway could prevent operators from making a reasonable entry even if a keyholder ends up responding during your entry, or could result in your activities leaving a large forensic footprint. Acquiring training where the trainer never discusses the limitations of tools or techniques may lead operators into a false sense of confidence; a huge danger to discover during an operation; something that high-level training specific to your mission set would likely have addressed and prepared your operators for.

The locks usually don’t change from one mission set to another. The tools and techniques are also pretty robust and apply to multiple mission sets. But, to the practitioner applying the skills, the context can change drastically depending upon the environment, and that changes everything about the decisions that are made in relation to NDE choices, as well as the training that one should be seeking from a provider.

-Pat Watson

August 2026