Court upholds firing of LAPD
officers who played Pokémon Go during holdup
A California appellate court has
ruled that two Los Angeles police officers were properly fired for playing
Pokémon Go instead of responding to a robbery.
The court ruled on Friday that
the LAPD was justified in firing Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell for misconduct
in 2017, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday.
On April 15, 2017, a video system
in their patrol car captured the officers discussing how to catch a Snorlax and
trying to capture the rare Togetic in the game while ignoring a report of
several people who were in the process of robbing a Macy’s in the Crenshaw
area, according to the ruling.
A police captain who arrived at
the scene saw another patrol car parked nearby and wondered why the officers
hadn’t responded and answered it himself, court documents said.
The officers claimed they hadn’t
heard the radio request for backup but on the patrol car recordings, they were
heard discussing whether to respond and Lozano could be heard saying, "Ah,
screw it," according to the court filings.
The officers are then heard for
the next 20 minutes discussing the GPS-based Pokémon augmented reality
cellphone game and driving to various locations to "capture" virtual
creatures, the filings said.
They were fired after a police
board of rights unanimously ruled that the two officers committed misconduct that
was "unprofessional and embarrassing" and violated the public’s
trust.
The officers asked a court to
overturn their firings, arguing among other things that the recordings of their
private conversations were improperly used as evidence but the Superior Court
judge denied their petition. The appeals court upheld that decision.
