An officer with the South Whitley Police Department is no longer with the force.

The Town of South Whitley sent a one line statement in an email Friday announcing the dismissal:

Due to public safety, Officer Brian R.P. Schimmel is no longer with the South Whitley Police Department.

Schimmel’s departure from the force may be related to a traffic stop he made back in January. Schimmel can be seen pulling a young woman from her car after he stopped her for speeding. Schimmel claims she failed to comply with his requests to provide him with personal information or a driver’s license. The father of the woman, who was 18, posted the videos.

The town council had earlier indicated it would not take any action against Schimmel.

After speaking with the Augustus family, they said this entire experience has been traumatic.

“As soon as I hit the ground, I just remember looking across the pavement and just thinking to myself, there’s no way this is happening,” Vivian Augustus recalls. “…like when he was taking me to the car I was like, this just feels like a really bad dream.”

Both herself and her parents were in shock after hearing the towns decision to let Schimmel go, but they say this is just the first step.

“How we get justice is seeing actual changes,” said Brent Augustus.

Vivians mother Macy Augustus emotionally recalled how this experience has affected her saying, “…this really opened up my eyes personally, to the injustices that so many people face, and I know that I personally have probably not taken those as seriously in the past as I should have, and I will definitely be taking them more seriously as I move forward.”

Vivian and her family say they appreciate the community support, and they will continue to advocate for more training and better background checks for officers.

Also on Friday, Whitley County Prosecutor D.J. Sigler dismissed pending charges against the woman, identified as Vivian Augustus. She had been facing a class C misdemeanor charge for Refusal to Provide Information or Driver’s License.

Sigler indicated that his decision to drop the charge came from “legitimate community concerns about the Augustus arrest and officer conduct before, during and after the traffic stop diminished the State’s ability to successfully prosecute the case to conviction.”

However Sigler also noted that he’s concerned that people will believe that they do not have to comply with the lawful requests of police officers to provide identification.

“In Indiana, it is absolutely clear that a person pulled over for a traffic violation must provide their identifying information. This is a basic concept that has been written into the law by our legislature. This law will continue to be vigorously enforced,” Sigler is quoted as saying in the press release announcing the dismissal of the charge.