Hinesville Police release bodycam, admitting department ‘fell short’ in disabled couple traffic stop
By: -----
Hinesville, GA - The Hinesville Police Department has released body camera footage from a controversial April 27 traffic stop and acknowledged in a written statement that the department “fell short” in how the situation was handled — after a disabled Army veteran and her amputee husband were left stranded on a dark highway in the middle of the night.
The footage captures Officer Todd Parmentier stopping 71-year-old Debra Mobley-Sadler Sims on Highway 196 after the Georgia Crime Information Center flagged her vehicle as uninsured.
Before the couple could present a single piece of insurance documentation, Parmentier told them a tow truck was already on the way.
“I have a tow truck in route. The vehicle’s getting towed,” Parmentier says on the recording.
Mobley-Sadler Sims immediately pushed back, telling the officer she had active insurance with USAA. Parmentier declined to accept her phone or registration as valid proof, telling her the state database was the only verification he could rely on.
“We have to go by what the state says, and our system says,” Parmentier says on the recording. “And our system in the state of Georgia says you do not have insurance.”
When Mobley-Sadler Sims asked how she and her husband — a 75-year-old amputee who has not walked in two years — would get home, Parmentier responded: “This is your opportunity to have somebody to call somebody to come get you a ride, Lyft, Uber, something.”
It was approximately 3 a.m. and 54 degrees.
According to HPD’s statement, the officer also independently verified the vehicle’s uninsured status through the Georgia Department of Revenue’s electronic insurance verification system and provided the driver with a copy of the verification printout.
In a statement posted to its Facebook page, HPD said Assistant Chief Terranova Smith and Patrol Division Commander Capt. Franklin Gallob reviewed the body camera footage frame by frame, along with departmental policy and applicable Georgia law.
The review concluded the officer acted within Georgia law and department policy. However, the department stopped short of calling the stop a success.
“Department leadership also recognized that we fell short in how the overall situation was handled after the enforcement action was taken,” the statement reads. “Specifically, insufficient consideration was given to the occupants’ age, medical conditions, and the late-night circumstances surrounding the encounter.”
The department added that “supervisory consultation should have taken place before the traffic stop was concluded” and that it “should have done more to ensure the involved parties had safe and reliable transportation before clearing the scene.”