3.1 Employees, ID Cards, and Fingerprints

A New York Security or Fire Alarm Installer license is issued to a person or to a business that has a qualifying individual. The people who actually pull cable, program panels, and stand on a customer's ladder are often employees, not separately licensed installers. The written exam tests whether you know that those employees are lawful only when the licensee issues a Secretary of State-form identity card, fingerprints the worker, files paperwork on a one-day clock, and polices confidentiality. OpenExamPrep covers these duties as independent study of General Business Law (GBL) Article 6-D and 19 NYCRR Part 195. This section is not a Department of State (DOS) form packet and does not claim official endorsement.

The employee exemption: a card, not a second license

GBL §69-m requires a license to engage in the security or fire alarm business. 19 NYCRR 195.2(d) and the statute's employee language create the practical exception you will see on the exam: employees of a licensee need not be separately licensed if they have Secretary of State-form identification cards. The license remains with the firm and its qualifier. The employee's authority is derivative — it lasts only while employment, the card, and the fingerprint/statement file are in order.

That exemption does not cover a friendly electrician who "helps on Saturday," a subcontractor's helper, or a former employee who kept a badge. If the person is not your employee with your card, the exemption does not apply. "I only hold the flashlight" is not a defense when the work is installing, servicing, maintaining, or assisting with a security or fire alarm system. Helpers who pull wire are still in the licensed activity; the card-and-fingerprint package is how the law lets them work under the firm instead of under a second personal license.

Fingerprints: licensee duty, two IdentoGo codes, five-month receipts

The licensee — not the employee acting alone — must submit employee fingerprints. IdentoGo (IDEMIA) uses different service codes for different roles. Mixing them is a classic exam trap.

Fingerprint receipts are valid for five months. If the receipt is older than five months, it is stale; print again. 19 NYCRR 195.8 then imposes a filing clock that is much shorter than five months: the licensee must send the employee statement and the fingerprint receipt to the Division of Licensing Services within 24 hours of employment. File the original fingerprint receipt by registered mail to Division of Licensing Services, P.O. Box 22001, Albany, NY 12201-2001. Photocopy the receipt for the personnel file before you mail the original.

GBL §69-q(5) allows provisional employment after fingerprints have been submitted. The worker may perform duties until the Division finds a disqualifying felony or a pending criminal case that would bar the person. Provisional work is after submission, not after a handshake and a promise to visit IdentoGo next month. If DOS later flags a bar, work stops.

Employee statement: 19 NYCRR 195.15

The DOS employee statement is a prescribed form, not a résumé you invent. It includes a three-year work history and an attestation covering felony history and honesty crimes — theft, fraud, bribery, and perjury. The licensee stamps each statement with:

• Licensee name
• Year
• License number
• A sequential number (this becomes the employment identification number used on the ID card)

That stamp creates an audit trail: statement 47 belongs to a named employee, matches card 47, and matches the fingerprint receipt mailed for that hire. Keep the completed statement in the personnel file. The 24-hour Albany package is the statement plus the original fingerprint receipt.

ID card specifications: 19 NYCRR 195.11

DOS specifies physical card details. Cards issued after July 1, 2018 had to meet this specification; that transition date has passed. Current cards must meet the current spec. Do not study 2018 as if you still had a grace period.

One side of the card must display all of the following:

• Employee of (business name) (area code and telephone)
• The employee's name
• Licensed by the NYS Department of State (Employment Identification Number) Call 518-474-4429 for Information
• The photograph

The telephone number 518-474-4429 is the DOS information line printed on the card. Do not replace it with the shop's sales number. Do not replace the DOS license legend with "Certified" or "Approved."

A color head-and-neck likeness means a current photo that actually looks like the worker — not a decade-old group shot, not a logo, and not a black-and-white photocopy of a driver license. Plastic or laminate is about durability in a tool bag; a raw paper printout fails the material rule.

When employment ends, collect the card within one business day. Do not let a terminated technician keep a badge that still says they work for you. File the surrendered card with the personnel records (retention of those records is a 195.10 rule taught in the next section).

Confidentiality and reporting: 19 NYCRR 195.12

Employees shall not divulge information obtained in the course of the work except to the employer or as required by law. Alarm work exposes codes, safe hours, camera angles, and lock locations. Telling a neighbor, posting a panel on social media, or briefing a competing company is a 195.12 problem, not merely a customer-service complaint.

The employer must report suspected violations to the Secretary of State. If you think an employee is unlicensed on the side, forging a card, or leaking customer information, the reporting duty is yours. Silence is not a documented option in 195.12.

Walk-through scenario

You hire Dana on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. Dana completes the DOS statement; you stamp it with your business name, 2026, your license number, and sequential ID 118. Dana is printed the same morning under 1545TY (or hands you a receipt still inside the five-month window). You copy the receipt, then send the statement and original receipt by registered mail to P.O. Box 22001 so the filing is within 24 hours of employment. You issue a 3⅜ × 2⅛ plastic card with a color head-and-neck photo, Dana's name, "Employee of" your firm with your telephone, the DOS legend with employment ID 118, and 518-474-4429. Dana may work provisionally after the prints are submitted unless DOS finds a disqualifying felony or pending case. When Dana leaves on a Friday, you collect the card by the next business day and file it with personnel records.

Exam mix-ups to refuse

1. Using 1545SG (license-applicant code) when fingerprinting an employee.
2. Waiting until the first payday — or until the five-month receipt is about to expire — to mail Albany.
3. Treating July 1, 2018 as an open transition instead of teaching the current card spec.
4. Issuing untreated paper badges, or black-and-white photos, or omitting 518-474-4429.
5. Letting a terminated worker keep the card, or assuming every helper needs a personal installer license.

The personnel package is one system: statement, stamp, fingerprints, 24-hour registered mailing, plastic card, confidentiality, and surrender. Break any piece and the employee exemption no longer looks like the statute DOS wrote.