Two US police officers fired for playing Pokemon Go

Pokemon! Get them all! “All but the real thieves…

Featured Image: Niantic

He remembers. In 2017, Pokémon Go was so hot on every phone that we regularly see a dash of players heading into specific places, defeating bosses in Raid Battles or trying to catch rare Pokémon.

But, as USA Today reported, in the same year, a backup request was sent to the Los Angeles Police Department, with the goal of speedy intervention in the robbery. Of course, the officers on duty and available respond present. Logically at least, two of them, Luis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, deliberately ignored this request from one of the leaders, leading to resignations.

If the case resurfaces today, although it dates back several years, it is because of the recent publication of legal documents relating to this case, in which we found out the reasons for this refusal.

So we learned that these two officers refused to respond to the Commander in order to play Pokémon Go. And finally, in their version, they were on foot patrol and didn’t hear the call, they said. In a park where the music was loud.

However, video footage of their car clearly indicates that they were nearby during the robbery and that Luis Lozano told Eric Mitchell he didn’t want to take care of him. Despite a second call from his unit, which has yet to be answered, Officer Lozano said Snorlax had grown up. Over the next twenty minutes, the two of them talk about a Pokémon as they head to this location to try to capture it.

Their trip was prolific as Officer Mitchell managed to capture Snorlax and knew it would make his colleagues jealous. Then they decided to continue their momentum by going to capture the Togetic Pokémon, which they managed to obtain.

When investigating misconduct, the two officers claimed that they had never played Pokémon Go, only discussing the matter. Eventually, during testing, they admitted leaving the area they were supposed to work in to capture Snorlax, insisting she was on extra patrol. (surely…)

To close the case, Luis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were fired after a unanimous vote. However, they tried to appeal this decision, arguing that the video recording should not be used as evidence and that they were not given the opportunity to be represented by a lawyer during the hearing.

The appeal was dismissed on January 7, but, failing to convince the thieves, they took Snorlax and Togetic.

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