Smile, downtown La Crosse, you’re on camera

Now operational, 33 cameras

A surveillance-camera system is now operational in downtown La Crosse.

The city has flipped the switch on the Safe-Cam project and is now recording video from 33 cameras arrayed throughout the downtown area.

The main use for the cameras is to gather evidence of crimes, says assistant police chief Rob Abraham.

“So if there’s a crime that’s committed while they’re investigating something,” he explained, “they’ll be able to request to go back and look at that footage or have investigators to look at certain camera angles to review that footage.”

The cameras may deter crime, as well. They’re not down there as some big secret.

“We made every effort to make sure that the cameras are good to go,” said Abraham, who also noted there will soon be a map on the police website showing where the cameras are placed. “On the back end I had the blue lights installed on them to make them highly visible, especially at night.”

Private fundraising paid for the cameras. The effort has been spearheaded by the City Vision Foundation and started after the murders of Paul Petras, and and his son A.J., who were 56 and 19, respectively, when they were shot in a camera shop downtown in September of 2012.