diff --git a/pals/core.py b/pals/core.py
index db3fd80..4d03236 100644
--- a/pals/core.py
+++ b/pals/core.py
@@ -28,9 +28,17 @@ class Locker:
 
         It holds the name of the application (so lock names are namespaced and less likely to
         collide) and the SQLAlchemy engine instance (and therefore the connection pool).
+
+        If `unlock_all_on_checkin` is true (default), it will defensively do a
+        unlock all operation when connections are given back to the connection
+        pool. It is unlikely that a lock is left un-released (esp when using
+        the context manager), but this step adds safety.
+        The operation comes with some cost, so it may be desireable to disable
+        in high-frequency use cases. Users should monitor locks in this case
+        and recycle connections regularly.
     """
     def __init__(self, app_name, db_url=None, blocking_default=True, acquire_timeout_default=30000,
-            create_engine_callable=None):
+            create_engine_callable=None, unlock_all_on_checkin=True):
         self.app_name = app_name
         self.blocking_default = blocking_default
         self.acquire_timeout_default = acquire_timeout_default
@@ -40,28 +48,31 @@ def __init__(self, app_name, db_url=None, blocking_default=True, acquire_timeout
         else:
             self.engine = sa.create_engine(db_url)
 
-        @sa.event.listens_for(self.engine, 'checkin')
-        def on_conn_checkin(dbapi_connection, connection_record):
-            """
-                This function will be called when a connection is checked back into the connection
-                pool.  That should happen when .close() is called on it or when the connection
-                proxy goes out of scope and is garbage collected.
-            """
-            if dbapi_connection is None:
-                # This may occur in rare circumstances where the connection is already closed or an
-                # error occurred while connecting to the database. In these cases any held locks
-                # should already be released when the connection terminated.
-                return
-
-            with dbapi_connection.cursor() as cur:
-                # If the connection is "closed" we want all locks to be cleaned up since this
-                # connection is going to be recycled.  This step is to take extra care that we don't
-                # accidentally leave a lock acquired.
-                cur.execute('select pg_advisory_unlock_all()')
-            # Connections in the pool should not have an open transaction, therefore we need to roll back
-            # before we return the connection because the execute above might have triggered an automatic
-            # BEGIN.
-            dbapi_connection.rollback()
+        if unlock_all_on_checkin:
+            sa.event.listen(self.engine, 'checkin', self.on_conn_checkin)
+
+    def on_conn_checkin(self, dbapi_connection, connection_record):
+        """
+            This method will be called when a connection is checked back into the connection
+            pool and `unlock_all_on_checkin` is true. A connection is checked
+            in to the pool when .close() is called on it or when the connection
+            proxy goes out of scope and is garbage collected.
+        """
+        if dbapi_connection is None:
+            # This may occur in rare circumstances where the connection is already closed or an
+            # error occurred while connecting to the database. In these cases any held locks
+            # should already be released when the connection terminated.
+            return
+
+        with dbapi_connection.cursor() as cur:
+            # If the connection is "closed" we want all locks to be cleaned up since this
+            # connection is going to be recycled.  This step is to take extra care that we don't
+            # accidentally leave a lock acquired.
+            cur.execute('select pg_advisory_unlock_all()')
+        # Connections in the pool should not have an open transaction, therefore we need to roll back
+        # before we return the connection because the execute above might have triggered an automatic
+        # BEGIN.
+        dbapi_connection.rollback()
 
     def _lock_name(self, name):
         if self.app_name is None:
diff --git a/readme.rst b/readme.rst
index bab176f..4f272bb 100644
--- a/readme.rst
+++ b/readme.rst
@@ -141,6 +141,10 @@ connection (a.k.a session) ends, even if the client disconnects ungracefully.  S
 crashes or otherwise disappears, PostgreSQL should notice and remove all locks held by that
 connection/session.
 
+Please note that `pg_advisory_unlock_all` takes some time. In high frequency cases, you might
+want to disable it (by passing `unlock_all_on_checkin=False` to the `Locker`).
+Users should monitor locks in this case and recycle connections regularly.
+
 The possibility could exist that PostgreSQL does not detect a connection has closed and keeps
 a lock open indefinitely.  However, in manual testing using `scripts/hang.py` no way was found
 to end the Python process without PostgreSQL detecting it.