John Crivalle's professional life began far from the high-stakes environment of criminal investigations. Growing up on Chicago's Southwest Side, he worked construction jobs while finishing school, absorbing the discipline and patience those early years required. That background, rooted in practical problem-solving, would later inform the methodical style he brought to felony investigations.
Today, Crivalle serves as an Investigator III in the Cook County Public Defender's Office, a senior position that places him at the centre of complex criminal cases. In a county where more than 25,000 felony cases are filed each year, investigators like Crivalle sift through evidence, locate witnesses, and test competing narratives under the scrutiny of both prosecutors and defense attorneys. It is meticulous work that demands accuracy and discretion. "When someone's liberty is on the line, every fact matters," Crivalle says. "You have to be sure what you bring to the courtroom can stand up to the toughest cross-examination."
His rise through the ranks, from construction sites to one of the nation's busiest public defender offices, shows a steady progression built on persistence and an ability to translate raw information into courtroom-ready facts.
Dual Roles in Security and Public Awareness
Crivalle's responsibilities do not stop at the courthouse door. He is also vice president of Illinois Security Cameras, a company that designs and installs surveillance systems for businesses and municipalities. That second role places him in a delicate position: he helps deploy the very tools of monitoring that he also warns can be misused.
The tension informs his writing. His book Big Brother's Watching: How Much Does He Know and What Can You Do About It? explores how government agencies and private companies gather and analyse data in ways that often escape public notice. "I've seen firsthand how surveillance technology can solve crimes," he says. "But I've also seen how quickly those same tools can be turned on ordinary citizens without their knowledge."
According to the U.S. private detective and investigator sector—which includes surveillance professionals—the market is expected to grow by roughly 4 to 5 percent annually through 2030. Much of that growth comes from digital forensics and open-source intelligence, areas where technological capacity often outpaces public regulation. Crivalle's work highlights both the practical value and the potential overreach of those expanding capabilities.
A Growing National Voice on Surveillance
Crivalle's commentary extends beyond his own publications. He appears regularly on talk radio, joins civic panels around Chicago, and contributes interviews to regional and national outlets. His message resonates at a moment when Americans are increasingly conscious of how their personal data is collected and used. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 79 percent of U.S. adults are concerned about how companies use the data they collect, and 64 percent express similar concern about government data collection.
His public persona, sometimes under the satirical pen name Jack Crivalle, blends investigation with pointed critique. He speaks about "the compliance trap," where promises of security encourage people to surrender privacy, and about how media manipulation shapes political polarization. "We were promised safety," Crivalle observes, "but too often what we get is surveillance disguised as protection."
By grounding these warnings in years of real-world investigative work, he offers an alternative to purely academic debate. Audiences hear from someone who has used surveillance tools in criminal defense and understands both their necessity and their risks.
Balancing Justice and Privacy in a Changing Market
The U.S. private investigation field, valued at about $5 billion in 2024, faces accelerating demand for cyber investigations and corporate due diligence. At the same time, states and federal agencies are weighing stricter rules on data collection and facial recognition. This tension, between market growth and calls for restraint, mirrors the duality of Crivalle's own career.
Inside the Cook County Public Defender's Office, his investigations help safeguard constitutional rights. In the private sector, he advises on deploying surveillance systems that must comply with privacy laws. That combination of roles gives him a perspective few others can claim: both practitioner of surveillance and critic of its unchecked expansion.
His forthcoming book, The American Bubble, promises to continue the conversation, exploring how democratic institutions are challenged by technology-driven oversight. For Crivalle, the issue is not technology itself but the absence of robust public discussion. "The danger," he says, "is when surveillance grows faster than our ability to debate its limits."
A Career that Bridges Courtroom and Public Debate
Crivalle's journey, from construction work to felony investigations and national commentary, illustrates how a career in public defense can evolve into a broader examination of civil liberties. He brings the rigor of a criminal investigator to the public conversation about surveillance, offering readers and audiences a view informed by both the practical demands of justice and the cautionary lessons of unchecked monitoring.
Americans are weighing how much privacy they are willing to give up for a sense of safety, and Crivalle offers a clear, real-world perspective. He is not predicting a sci-fi dystopia. Instead, he urges people to stay alert, because the very tools designed to protect can just as easily be turned into instruments of surveillance.
