La Crosse police finally equipped with body cams … kind of

Dept. only has four cameras, which cost $1,500 each

It’s been well over a year since La Crosse police first started to plan for body cameras.

Those long-promised body cameras could be deployed within days. At least some of them.  

“We’re just getting over a few minor hurdles, just prior to deploying them.” La Crosse police captain Jason Melby said. “We’re hoping to have them out soon.”

Melby says the department’s sticking with the original plan of starting with just four cameras at first, just to make certain they’re ideal.

“We didn’t want to go out and buy enough for our entire field services bureau, which would be somewhere in the area of 60-plus cameras, until we knew for sure how these were going to work.”

And once that happens, universal deployment is likely in the future.

“Just the way law enforcement is moving in general,” Melby explained, “I would not be surprised when there gets to be a time where the technology is readily available, cost effective and the general expectation would be that everybody has a body cam.” 

The department first began considering body cams over two years ago and deployment was supposed to happen a year ago about this time. 

The new cameras cost about $1,500 each and can link up to the squad camera systems that are already in place.