HINESVILLE, Ga. (WTOC) - The Hinesville police officer who left a disabled Army veteran and her amputee husband on the side of a dark highway in April has resigned from the department.

Chief Tracey Howard confirmed Officer Todd Parmentier resigned the first week of August, following a nearly three-month internal investigation.

“Well, there was a recommendation made by me for termination, and he had due process,” Howard said. “And he chose to resign in lieu of termination.”

Chief says this wasn’t an isolated case

Howard said the Sims incident wasn’t the first time this kind of stop had raised concerns within the department. He said before that stop on April 27, another driver was allowed to walk home alone at night after a similar traffic stop over an insurance issue.

That earlier incident, Howard said, had already prompted internal review — before the Sims case drew public attention in May.

“There was a culmination of different things,” Howard said. “We want to function and provide services to the community in the best light that we can, and what the community expects, in hopes that we exceed. In this situation, those standards weren’t met.”

New department policy: ‘Leave no one behind’

Howard said the department issued a new directive after the Sims incident, formalizing how officers should handle similar situations going forward.

“We put it out in the form of directive,” Howard said. “We made changes to things and modified policy to make sure it reflects our efforts through our directive — which is policy. Which is to make sure: ‘Leave no one behind.’”

Under the new policy, officers are expected to show due regard for safety before towing a vehicle and leaving someone behind, including offering a courtesy ride when a patrol car can safely and equitably transport the person. Howard said that option was not available in the Sims case because her husband uses a wheelchair.

Officers are also now equipped with communication devices allowing them to call insurance companies directly to verify coverage that may not appear in the state’s database; the same type of database error that led to the Sims traffic stop.

Howard said that database gap is part of a larger, statewide issue. Insurance companies are not required to report policy changes to the state in real time, he said, which can cause active coverage to be mistakenly flagged as lapsed.

Certification review still pending

A separate investigation into Parmentier’s police certification remains open with the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST). Howard said possible outcomes range from no action to a suspended or revoked certification.

WTOC has requested Parmentier’s personnel file from the city of Hinesville and related records from Georgia POST.

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