Two Los Angeles police officers were fired because they played Pokémon Go while on duty instead of assisting in the pursuit of robbers.
These things happen today. LAPD officers were called by radio to support a robbery incident, but instead of chasing the robbers, they chose to catch a Pokémon. The fact and their dismissal took place in 2017, the police appealed against the decision and only now has the final decision of the judges for their final removal from office been issued.
The video camera of the patrol car witnessed all this, as it showed that the two police officers, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, ignored a request for support from their colleagues, to play the game.
The couple of police officers parked near an area where there was an ongoing robbery and while the radio called them for support, they ignored the call and left the area.
When asked later why they did not respond to the call, the two officers said they were in a noisy area and could not hear the radio. Lozano and Mitchell's supervisor was skeptical of their explanation and checked the camera system that was recording everything inside the car (commonly known as a dashcam), and discovered that the two had heard the call and chose to go elsewhere, as they did not want to help. The supervisor reported the incident, and so an official investigation was opened.
According to court records, an extensive review of the system video in the car revealed that shortly after leaving the scene of the robbery, the two officers were overheard discussing Pokémon Go, including a Snorlax that had appeared and the best route to intercept and capture it!!!.
For about the next 20 minutes, the in-car video system recorded the officers discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared in the cell phones their phones.
When questioned by their superiors, the officers denied playing Pokémon Go and said they were just having a conversation. They tried to appeal on the grounds that the in-vehicle recordings were not intended to be used to monitoring of the "personal conversations" of the police officers, but the judge considered their action unfounded and dismissed the appeal.
