Siegel becomes latest sheriff’s department official to enter La Crosse County sheriff race

The latest candidate to officially enter the race for La Crosse County sheriff hopes to raise awareness of the office among county residents. 

Captain of Investigations John Siegel says the department has been doing well in recent years, so he’s not promoting major changes.

“I don’t think it’s about change,” says Siegel, who has worked in law enforcement for 28 years.  “I think it’s about improvement. How can we continue to do better? Our rural areas are continuing to grow, we have housing additions outside of Holmen, outside of West Salem. They want to have more presence, so figuring out how can we have that presence for them.”

Siegel says many people in the county don’t seem to know the name of the current sheriff, and that’s one reason he wants the department to be more visible.

“People don’t see our squad cars, generally speaking, because they have their own municipal police departments,” he says, “so I think sometimes you just lose track of what the sheriff does in the community, and what our resources are, what our reach should be.”

Siegel also wants to improve mental health care for jail inmates and increase the department staff, if he’s elected to succeed retiring sheriff Jeff Wolf in November.    

Siegel is the only Democrat in the race for now. Marte Peterson and Fritz Leinfelder have registered for the Republican primary.