Two US police officers would rather catch Pokemon than thieves

Two US police officers have been fired for choosing to hunt Pokémon over responding to a robbery. A California appeals court upheld her release after the two officers challenged her.

According to court documents, the two men ignored a cry for help from a department store in April 2017 to use their cell phones instead to catch the fantasy creatures in Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go was released in 2016 and caused a worldwide stir. Players can use their smartphones to search the real world for Pokemon that appear in different locations on the map. In addition, players can have Pokemon compete against each other in competitions.

Catch rare pokemon

Recordings of conversations in the police car showed one officer telling the other shortly after he was alerted of the theft that a rare Pokémon Snorlax had appeared on his screen.

Then the two decided to go to the place to catch the imaginary creature. Over the next twenty minutes, officials apparently discussed Pokémon as they visited various locations where new virtual creatures continued to appear.

While they were able to successfully capture the Relaxo, the Togetic was clearly more difficult to control. The documents show an officer explicitly sworn in while battling Pokemon on his cell phone.

Misconduct fee

In the aftermath of the incident, the two men were charged with several charges of misconduct. They admitted not answering the theft call but denied playing Pokemon Go.

At disciplinary hearings, the two insisted they were only discussing the match and appealed for the Los Angeles City Council’s dismissal. However, the California Court of Appeals did not certify their statements and upheld their refusal. (saw/sda/avb)

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