LAPD Police officers Fired For Playing Pokémon Go instead Catching Criminals

Many of us know the feeling of diving deep into a video game and forgetting the time. It’s not a problem in your free time, but it is in your job. Especially when you have an essential job, for example as a police officer. Two LAPD officials would have thought better of that. Only a few can afford gaming on duty, but many employers are likely to turn a blind eye if you play a round of Candy Crush or Pokémon Go in between – even with the police, after all, officials often have waiting times or other breaks.

This is at least acceptable if it does not disrupt work. Two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) had to look for new jobs because they were fired for playing on duty. The two were fired in 2017 because they preferred to play Pokémon Go instead of following their boss’s instructions to support colleagues in an ongoing robbery at a nearby market.

Catch them all – Pokémon, not criminals

The two even left the crime area to hunt Pokémon Go creatures in a different area. What the two officers forgot: During their hunt for virtual creatures, they were filmed by the camera in the patrol car. The whole thing would probably have turned out more lightly if the police hadn’t also lied.

The incident happened a few years ago, but the two officers have filed a lawsuit against their release. The argument (via Kotaku): The video recordings violated the privacy rules that protect conversations between officers. Unsurprisingly, this objection was recently rejected. The minutes of the hearing also reveal that the two did not even begin to think about going about their job and only hunted Pokémon instead of criminals.