FBI experience helps prepare for life as private investigator

Before retiring to Charleston in 1990, Jeff Dossett spent 18 years with the FBI in Newark, N.J., working against organized crime.

He dealt with drugs and cartels and had to use his imagination to be one step ahead of crime. He worked across agencies on a variety of offenses and his experiences were as differing as the criminals he pursued. He says it was the perfect preparation for his job now as a private investigator.

Dossett, 66, now a Summerville resident, is senior partner at Charleston Investigative Associates in North Charleston. His experience throughout his 30-year career at the FBI, his three years in the Army and his Long Island University master's degree in criminal justice mean he's pretty much seen it all.

Now, he handles everything from interviewing people, running surveillance, courthouse searches or just plain old digging up information. Formed in 2001, Charleston Investigative Associates is an umbrella company that handles all types of cases and employs all former federal agents and former local law enforcement.

'Our company, we have seven partners, and we all have varying backgrounds and skills,' he said.

'Drawing on all of our expertise, we're able to provide a variety of (services for) clients that need a professional job. And I think that's one of the things about our company is that we're all professionals. That's the bottom line. We all have at least 30 years of law enforcement and investigative experience. That's why we're good at what we do.'

Dossett said his strength lies in his penchant for communication.

'I think one of the perks is that you get to meet a lot of different people,' he said.

'That's one of the things about our company. With our backgrounds, you have to learn how to talk to people. That's what our job is, you have to communicate. And if you can turn someone off, they can turn you off. But you have to learn how to get them to open up and to communicate with them.'

While experience, professionalism and communication are key elements to getting the job done right, Dossett knows that not every job is worth doing. He said his integrity stands above all.

'If we have a client that asks us to do this or that and we know that it's not right, we say no, we don't do that,' he said.