MADISON, Wis. -- For the third year in a row, the city of Madison and police on Saturday will close off State Street, charge admission and use surveillance cameras to help keep the crowds orderly at Freakfest.

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But thanks to a big camera expansion, a lot more eyes will be tracking Halloween troublemakers -- and eventually, perhaps, everyone on State Street.

A unique public-private effort is aiming to have surveillance cameras that cover every foot of the popular pedestrian corridor, an idea boosted by past Halloween trouble.

In the fall of 2003, angry revelers created an uncontrollable crowd at the end of a long Halloween night. Despite police in riot gear, businesses were damaged -- and so was the city's reputation.

In the last few years, in addition to Freakfest regulations, more lights and more cameras seemed to have helped quell the fear of riots.

Keith Huie, owner of a State Street business called Artist and Craftsman Supply, said he is looking forward to another Halloween party.

"I'm hopeful. The two years I've been down here, it has been very calm -- not congested and everyone's been well behaved. It has been nothing but great for us," said Huie. Madison police are using the momentum to move their camera surveillance program forward.

Using a total $50,000 in city funding the last two years, and roughly just as much in donated equipment and labor from MadCity Broadband, private crews are putting the finishing touches on installing 12 new cameras. All but one survey State Street. The other one is nearby at University Avenue, Frances Street and Lake Street.

That brings the total number of cameras for Halloween this year to 20, WISC-TV reported.

Lt. Joe Balles, of the Madison Police Department, said it's a wise investment.

"Absolutely, it's money well spent. I mean, what we've invested so far isn't even the cost of one police officer on an annual basis," Balles said.

Some of the new cameras give a 360-degree bird's-eye view. Other cameras are bidirectional, cutting across the sidewalk to cover more ground. Still others have an additional capacity to zoom in on people sitting on park benches or even eating in street-side restaurants.

Police said they are trying to get private donations so that similar views can be taken and held for 14 days all along the length of State Street.

This year, the expansion focus is on a traditional hotspot for trouble -- a couple blocks on the lower end of the pedestrian corridor.

"What we're seeking to do is filling in the lower end of State Street, basically to have every inch of the sidewalk covered in the 500-600 blocks. But we'd like to move up to the (Capitol) square, all the way up State Street," Balles said.

With public budgets tight, Balles said he is hoping private donations will help police watch an area from about Peace Park to the Capitol, which does not currently have surveillance cameras.

All the camera movement has been accelerated by the State Street reconstruction, which allowed fiber optic cable to go in and give police a way to get high-resolution video. Images now are stored for 14 days and erased unless used for evidence in criminal cases.