Pokémon GO: 2 policemen prefer to catch Snorlax and not robbers, get fired

They ignored the call to reinforce a police colleague and preferred to play Pokémon GO. Two policemen were fired for this.

What is it about? Two officers who worked for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) were fired. Partly because they played the mobile game Pokémon GO (via Kotaku.com).

• On April 15, 2017, the two police officers Lozano and Mitchell were assigned to patrol the LAPD.
  • Together they have over 28 years of experience as police officers.
• Colleagues announced over the radio that a robbery was taking place and they were asking for reinforcements.
• The two policemen addressed ignored the request for reinforcements and instead caught Pokémon.
• Exactly how the evening went has now been shared with the public through new documents.

Surveillance camera records how the cops searched for Snorlax

That happened that evening: During the request for reinforcement via radio, the two police officers Mitchell and Lozano were not far from the shop where the robbery was taking place. A colleague saw the car with the two policemen leave the area after the radio message. Apparently so that the two cops could play Pokémon GO.

The surveillance camera (DICVS) installed in the police vehicles filmed the evening and what the police officers were doing. The recordings of the evening, along with lies by the police about the incident, resulted in both of them being fired.

Lozano and Mitchell’s representatives then filed a motion to appeal the decision. They argued that the use of the DICVS material as part of the official investigation into their conduct was against the protection of private conversations between officers. On January 7th, that appeal was denied. As a result, there are now from the official documents from January 2022 a good insight into what happened in the police car of the two policemen that day:

[…] For the next roughly 20 minutes, the DICVS recorded the two plaintiffs talking about Pokémon GO as they drove to various locations where the virtual creatures appeared to appear on the cellphones.

On the way to the location of Snorlax, Officer Mitchell pointed out to Officer Lozano that ‘a Togetic had just turned up’. That would be ‘in Crenshaw, south of the 50th’. After Mitchell apparently caught Snorlax and “Got it!” shouted, the two plaintiffs agreed to ‘get the Togetic’ and drove on.

At the next stop, the DICVS recorded Mitchell saying, ‘Don’t run away. Please don’t run away! ‘ while Lozano explained how he did the Togetic [mit Ultrabällen fing] and then said ‘I’ve got it!’

Mitchell stated that he was still going to catch it. ‘Holy shit, man. The thing fights with me like crazy. Finally Mitchell shouted, ‘Holy shit, finally’ which apparently was a nod to Togetic’s catch and he remarked, ‘The boys are going to be so jealous.’

The two plaintiffs then decided to return to the 7-Eleven (where their Sergeant Gomez later met them) in order to retire. On the way there, Mitchell remarked, ‘I got you a new Pokémon today, buddy’.

In 2017, the hype surrounding Pokémon GO was still very high. The game hadn’t even been out for a year, and special Pokémon that were strong or rare attracted hundreds of players.

In 2022, nobody would take detours for a Relaxo or a Togetic any more. The Pokémon are now much less exciting and there are much stronger alternatives that you can fight and catch even from home using a remote raid.

Pokémon that look unnatural are especially exciting. Like this broken snail mag that the Pokémon GO trainers think is really cool.