It's nearly six years removed from the glory days of Pokemon GO when there were stories of mobs of people intently staring at their phones and screaming for random Pokemon names. However, just because those mobs are mostly gone or contained to Pokemon GO Fest events doesn't mean that there aren't still players out there intently searching for rare Pokemon. In fact, there are some instances and professions where spawn points must take a backseat to addressing issues in the real world as two police officers found out recently.
It was first reported by Stephen Totillo of Axios that two LAPD officers have been fired for allegedly ignoring a call on their radios because they were chasing a wild Pokemon spawn in Pokemon GO. Court documents revealed the series of events in 2017 that led to the proceedings in the terminations of both officers and revealed the circumstances that led to the late, or not-at-all, response of the officers.
Court documents made public by the California courts laid out the series of events that happened on the night of the incident. The officers, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, were caught on their DICVS, or dash-cams, discussing the series of events in question. When a call to respond to a robbery-in-progress came through on the radio, the dash-cam recorded that the two deliberated on responding to the call, then ignored it. Soon after, one of the officers brought up that a Snorlax, then a rare spawning Togetic were on the Nearby map in Pokemon GO at the moment. Unbeknownst to them, it seems like one of their superior officers that was patrolling the same area, saw Lozano's and Mitchell's squad car in an alley, then drive off and turn in the opposite direction of the call, which led to all of this.
As stated earlier, the robbery and subsequent failure to respond to it by the two officers happened in 2017. The officers' defending themselves mentioned that they were talking about the game, not actually playing while on-duty. They claimed they never heard about the call because of loud music coming from a nearby park. Other excuses given were that they were not chasing the Pokemon, but were using a Pokemon GO tracker website (something that was popular at that time) to find the location of rare Pokemon spawns. They also claimed that the dash-cam recordings were not meant to record "private conversations" and could not be used against them. The judge threw out the case and upheld the terminations.
Anyone will say "there's a time and place for everything" and trying to catch Pokemon while on the clock is a risky undertaking. Playing a game while at work is one thing, while ignoring a call to do a job, especially in a law enforcement role, is another. As such, it's not hard to see why the officers were terminated.
Pokemon GO is now available on Android and iOS devices.
Source: California Courts