About Priority Lock and Security

The company in plain words

Priority Lock and Security LLC is a Tampa locksmith company that does both commercial and residential lock work, with commercial first. It was founded in June 2021. The owner is Steve Wathen, who spent about five years before that working on the doors and security of Tampa commercial buildings, so those are the doors he knows. The company is insured and can provide a certificate of insurance. There is no walk-in shop; the work happens at your building or your home.

What we do

Commercial door hardware: lever locks, mortise locks and deadbolts, panic bars and exit devices including fire exit door hardware, door closers, aluminum storefront door hardware, rekeying and lock changes, tenant turnover, master key systems and key control, mailbox locks, and door hardware repair on hollow metal and aluminum doors. For homeowners and landlords: rekeys, lock changes and deadbolts. Keys are cut for the buildings and homes we service.

What we do not do

Car keys, car lockouts, safes, gate motors, door and frame replacement, and fire door inspection or certification. We say so up front, and we will point you to somebody good for those.

Who we work for

Property managers, building owners, office managers and facilities teams, mostly in older multi-tenant buildings in and around Ybor City, and offices, storefronts, restaurants, churches, schools and apartment communities across Tampa. Homeowners and landlords too. The people who keep recommending us are property managers, and the reason is not a slogan: we answer, we show up when we said we would, we explain what we found in plain words, and we keep records of every building's doors, hardware and keys so the next request does not start from zero.

How we work

Text first. A photo of the door hardware with a sentence about what it is doing usually tells us what the part is and what the fix takes, so the first visit carries the right parts. You get a price before anyone is scheduled, and an estimate is a ceiling. The work is scheduled around your tenants and your business hours. When it is done you get a plain description of what we found and what we did.

About licensing in Hillsborough County

Florida does not license locksmiths at the state level. Hillsborough County stopped issuing, monitoring and registering locksmith licenses on July 1, 2025, after the state preempted local occupational licensing. So we do not advertise a license number, and a company that still does is citing a program that no longer runs. What we can show a property manager is a current certificate of insurance and references from buildings like theirs.