Cops are fired for hunting Pokemon instead of criminal

It's normal for us to get a little distracted while we work, watching something funny on TikTok or playing on our cell phone to relax a little. However, two police officers ended up taking it too far: instead of going to fight a robbery, they went looking for a Snorlax and a Togetic in Pokémon GO. Both were fired and appealed in court – which upheld the decision.

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Here's what happened: Officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell of the Los Angeles Police Department were in a squad car on April 15, 2017, months after Pokémon GO became all the rage. The car was called via radio to fight a robbery with several suspects in a mall store. The officers told the supervisor that they did not hear the call for backup – but the vehicle's internal camera denied that report.

Recording from the DICVS, or in-car digital video system, shows that Lozano and Mitchell decided to ignore the radio requests. They ended up taking the car in the opposite direction to the mall. Five minutes later, the Pokémon hunt began.

Mitchell said a Snorlax had just appeared at the intersection of two streets; while driving there, the officers also found a Togetic. The game lasted about 20 minutes.

The court decision describes the case as follows:

After Mitchell apparently captured the Snorlax - exclaiming, "Got it!" – the petitioners agreed to “capture Togetic” and left. When the car stopped again, DICVS recorded Mitchell saying "don't run, don't run", while Lozano described how he "defeated and captured" Togetic using Ultra Balls before announcing, "got it".

Mitchell also tried to catch a Togetic, which was valiantly resisting, but finally succeeded. He commented that “the guys will be full of envy”; both returned to a convenience store to finish their shift, and met with the supervisor, Sergeant Jose Gomez.

Police say they didn't play Pokémon GO

The defense of the police basically consisted of stating that:

• they weren't playing Pokémon GO, just following a third-party app that tracks Pokémon on their cell phones;
• they weren't capturing Pokémon, but taking screenshots in that app to send to colleagues;
• were not having difficulty with Togetic, but in taking the print of the little monster because, “to capture the image, occasionally, the creature ends up resisting”.

The officers even admitted to leaving a foot patrol area to hunt for Snorlax, but insisted they did so not only to "pursue this mythical creature" but to carry out an "extra patrol".

Predictably, that defense didn't stick. A committee of the Los Angeles Police Department has ruled that Lozano and Mitchell are guilty of several misconduct charges, including: playing Pokémon GO while on patrol in a police vehicle; not responding via radio when the vehicle was called; making misleading statements to the supervisor; and making false statements during an internal investigation.

The officers filed a lawsuit in a lower court, which upheld the decision to fire them. So they appealed to the court of appeals, where a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the decision last Friday.