SACRAMENTO, California, USA (AP) – A California appeals court found that two Los Angeles police officers were justifiably fired for playing Pokémon Go instead of responding to a theft report.
The court ruled Friday that the Los Angeles Police Department had grounds to fire Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell for misconduct in 2017, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday.
On April 15, 2017, a video system on their patrol captured officers discussing how to catch a Snorlax and trying to capture the rare Togetic in-game while ignoring a report of multiple people robbing a Macy’s store in the area of Crenshaw, according to the opinion.
A police captain who arrived at the scene saw another patrol car parked nearby and wondered why the officers had not responded and attended to it himself, according to court documents.
The agents claimed that they had not heard that they called for reinforcements on the radio, but in the patrol recordings they heard them arguing whether they should respond and Lozano was heard saying: “Ah, to hell,” according to court records.
Agents are then heard for the next 20 minutes talking about Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game for mobile phones, which involves using GPS and driving to various locations to “capture” virtual creatures, according to the files.
They were fired after a police rights board unanimously ruled that the two officers had engaged in shameful and unprofessional conduct and violated the trust of citizens.
The officers asked a court to overturn their firings, arguing, among other things, that the recordings of their private conversations were misused as evidence. However, the Superior Court judge rejected his request and the appeals court upheld the decision.
