Residential rock star, but investigator at heart

Residential rock star, but investigator at heart

Name: Dee DeGeest
Title: Engineering technician
Started at CCEC: July 1993

Curiosity runs through Dee (Dianna) DeGeest’s DNA. Growing up, she loved reading mystery novels and “who-dun-it” books. When she graduated from college with a criminal justice degree, she got her career off the ground by interning as a legal assistant, but quickly learned that her real passion was to be an investigator.

“I was an FBI agent for five minutes,” DeGeest said with a smirk on her face.

“I knew I did not want to sit in a law library or a squad car all day. I wanted to figure things out, solve things, and investigate,” she said. Once she made up her mind she went full steam ahead to where she wanted to go. The goal was to reach the highest levels of investigation. So, she poured her heart and soul into the demanding path to becoming an FBI agent. To put the intense process into perspective, it takes three years of professional experience, plus roughly a year to get through the hiring process.

“I passed each hurdle, each test,” she said.

The last phase of the journey was her final interview in Minneapolis, Minn., but she did not have a car, so she bought a bus ticket and had a friend pick her up in the city to attend the interview.

“I was doing all I could to prepare, reading the newspapers to get caught up on current events,” DeGeest said. “I even bought an all-black outfit, because you know black is a power color.”

After an intense 15 minutes in a room with six blacksuited agents, they got up to shake her hand and congratulate her for officially passing the interview. She could finally breathe. During processing, as the agents were briefing her on upcoming training, another gave her a handbook for Quantico (the FBI training center in Virginia) and an airline ticket for her flight. But as an agent was flipping through her file, he noticed that there was one thing they had missed in the background check. “Do you know what your eyesight is?”

DeGeest told him that she wears contacts. Dismay washed over the agent’s face as he dropped his head to the table. At that time, the FBI had a policy that agents had to have 20/20 uncorrected vision due to an agent, whose glasses were lost during a shootout, being killed.

“I had this euphoria from accomplishing my dream, and then it all came crashing down with one little hangup. I was disappointed, but in the back of my mind, I said to myself, ‘You know what? You did it.’”

DeGeest did not let this setback ruin her career ambitions in law enforcement. She gained various experiences in law enforcement, from investigation to narcotics.

“I feel like everything you do gets you to where you are,” she said.