Officer Jenny, nooooooooo.
So way back in 2017, a pair of Los Angeles police officers decided that responding to a robbery in progress was less important than catching a Snorlax in Pokémon Go (to be fair, that was probably a big deal then). And now, it seems both officers have been let go from the department.
According to court documents (from USA Today), in April 2017, officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were on foot when a call about a robbery came in, requesting backup at a nearby mall. They… didn’t respond. When their sergeant inquired about the issue, they claimed that they didn’t hear it, as there was “a lot of music” and it was “really loud in the park” they were patrolling. The sergeant was mostly willing to let it go, but then had the thought to check their cruiser’s in-car video system recording. And wouldn’t you know it, they were caught on video, hearing the call, and discussing whether or not to respond, and then radioed in a lie about their location to justify not backing their fellow officers up.
The issue got referred to a detective, and of course things got worse. Said detective found out that, after a number of ignored calls, they began talking about Pokémon Go; Namely, they’d spotted a nearby Snorlax. They then spent a third of an hour driving around LA, talking about Pokémon, and hunting down that Snorlax. In the process of going after that Snorlax, they discovered a Togetic, which they went after once they’d bagged the Snorlax.
The follow up interviews had the two of them claiming that they weren’t playing the game, merely talking about it. The detective decided that this was them “not being truthful”.
The officers pled guilty to not providing backup, but continued to deny playing Pokémon Go on duty. While they eventually admitted that they left their patrol area to go after Snorlax, they framed it as being an “extra patrol” and that it was a “social media event”.
This, of course, did not fly. Both were let go from their jobs after being found guilty of a number of infractions. While they appealed the decision, citing their belief that the video from their cruiser was inadmissible evidence, and that their rights had been violated when the sergeant inquired about the incident without their lawyers present, those reasons were denied (and, frankly, were kind of pathetic). They appealed again much more recently, but that appeal was also denied. Both points raised by the officers weren’t considered a violation of their rights, which they should know because they’re cops.
Look on the bright side, guys: you’ve got more time to hunt down those legendaries.
Source: PC Gamer
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