Boddie unveils Safe Street Zones initiative

Published 9:15 am Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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LaGrange City Councilman Quay Boddie has created a simple new initiative with the hopes of having would-be criminals think twice and stop the senseless violence plaguing the city.

“It’s no secret that we have an ongoing issue within our city of LaGrange, Georgia. More often than not, there’s always some type of violent act taking place within various communities. It’s hard not to notice,” Boddie said. “We as a city must take action and take charge to alleviate excessive acts and take over our communities.”

Boddie proposed an initiative he called Safe Street Zones, to bring awareness to neighborhoods, especially high crime areas, to express concerns for safety as a city government. The initiative consists of signs being placed in high-crime areas.

“[The sign] will read: ‘This is a safe street zone. There is hope for your life when you make the right choices, take a different route, and think about the future. We believe in you.— City of LaGrange.’”

Boddie said the sign will also include a QR code linked to the Troup County Resources website, which has career opportunities and resources that might help those in need.

“It is my belief that if you have positive visuals. It could be a deciding factor on whether someone chooses to make bad choices or not.  In a split second, if you think twice about something, you can actually change a lot of narratives,” Boddie said.

In addition to the signs being posted, Boddie suggested the community come together, walk various neighborhoods, pass out literature with the same information, increase police presence, and also talk to residents within certain neighborhoods, expressing safety and getting their buy-in for the initiative.

Mayor Jim Arrington said letting residents who are struggling know that resources are available would certainly help.

“They can see all the resources that are out there for them. They may be stealing something because they’re hungry. They may be stealing because they need clothes. You never know. Maybe this could save one life, two lives, 1000 lives, you don’t know, but if you don’t do something, you know you’re not going to,” Arrington said.

Boddie unveiled the new sign during LaGrange City Council work session on Tuesday morning, saying the signs were created by the city’s sign shop at minimal cost.

“We want to place these signs as if it were a speed limit sign, stop sign, whatever the case may be, hopefully, as a deterrent to stop some of the senseless violence and things that are going on within the city,” Boddie said. “I really think that if you see something like this, it’ll make you think twice about making a bad decision.”