This August 2016 photo shows the screen of a smartphone displaying the Pokémon Go app in Brussels. Two Los Angeles Police Department officers were fired for playing the game instead of answering a robbery call in 2017.
Nicolas Maeterlinck / AFP via Getty Images
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Nicolas Maeterlinck / AFP via Getty Images
This August 2016 photo shows the screen of a smartphone displaying the Pokémon Go app in Brussels. Two Los Angeles Police Department officers were fired for playing the game instead of answering a robbery call in 2017.
Nicolas Maeterlinck / AFP via Getty Images
A California appeals court upheld the firing of two former Los Angeles Police Department officers for playing Pokémon Go rather than responding to a nearby robbery.
Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, who were fired following the 2017 incident, argued that the city broke the law by using the digital video recording system in police cars as evidence and by word deny protection under the Public Safety Officers’ Rights Act. . A California appeals court denied their reinstatement petition in a 32 page decision filed on Friday.
“A defense panel found petitioners guilty of multiple counts of misconduct, based in part on a digital in-car video system (DICVS) that recorded petitioners being caught intentionally evading duty to assist a commanding officer in dealing with an ongoing robbery and playing a Pokémon Mobile Game while on duty,” the document reads, before outlining the events of April 15, 2017 and the ensuing investigation.
According to court records, Lozano and Mitchell ignored a backup request call in response to a robbery at nearby Macy’s, then began pursuing a “Snorlax” and spent the next 20 driving. to various locations where virtual creatures are displayed. on their map.
They were then accused of making false statements about their failure to respond to calls for and their involvement with Pokémon Go – for example, they said they were only talking about the augmented reality game. (became a worldwide craze for about a year) than actually playing it.
The officers were accused of various wrongdoings while on duty: failing to answer calls in which a robbery was taking place, making misleading statements to their commander when asked why they couldn’t hear the radio, not answering talk over the radio when their unit was called during a robbery, failed to handle a designated radio call, played Pokémon Go while on patrol in their vehicle, and made a false statement to a detective during the investigation. complaint investigation. They pleaded guilty to the first and third charges, and pleaded not guilty to the rest.
The officer’s attorney, Greg Yacoubian, told NPR via email that his client is “understandably frustrated with this opinion” and that his team is “assessing how best to proceed.” .”
“This case is important because it is important to hold the Department accountable for following its own rules and policies,” he wrote. “In addition, it is important that the Department be held accountable for compliance with the law regarding how it conducts its internal investigations. Intent does not justify the means.”
What the police say happened that Saturday
Saturday, April 15, was a busy day in the Southwest – there were more incoming calls than police cars, and there was a murder earlier in the day, according to court records.
Lozano and Mitchell are working as partners on foot patrol, which involves addressing “quality of life” issues in the Crenshaw Corridor and Leimert Park areas.
While the patrol officer – or captain – was traveling to the crime scene, he heard a radio call asking for help in response to an ongoing robbery involving multiple suspect at Macy’s in the Crenshaw Mall. He could see Macy’s from where he stopped in the street, and also saw a police car parked in an alley a few feet from the mall.
That police car didn’t answer the call, so the captain guessed it was from another department with a different radio frequency and decided to answer it himself with “Code 6”. As he approached the site of the robbery, he saw another police vehicle leaving the area.
Sgt. Jose Gomez, the two officers’ patrol supervisor that day, said the next five to seven minutes were “chaotic” with updates as the captain responded to the robbery.
He saw on the dashboard that Lozano and Mitchell’s unit was also “Code 6” and located in the Crenshaw Corridor, so tried to contact them for help, but received no response. minus. Then he got back in touch with the media department to get them to respond.
According to court records: “The media replied, ‘No,’ and that’s it.”
The officer’s supervisor was suspicious
Gomez then thought it “strange” that Lozano and Mitchell had begun their Code 6 response in the Crenshaw Corridor around the same time that the captain responded to the ongoing robbery.
He arranged to meet with officers later that night in a 7-Eleven parking lot, where they were conducting a separate investigation into illegal goods. He asked them if they heard the call for assistance during the robbery – Mitchell said he didn’t, while Lozano said he heard other staff answering but didn’t hear the request to back up .
According to court documents, Gomez asked them if their radios were working and reminded them of the importance of communication systems to their livelihoods and safety.
Officers said the park was noisy and there was “a lot of music”, and Gomez advised them to move to a quieter location next time.
Reportedly still unsettled the next day, Gomez decided to review their patrol unit’s DICVS log to “find out what they do in the average day.”
Through that recording, he learns that Lozano and Mitchell’s patrol unit are in fact the people discovered in the alley near the mall, and that they not only heard the radio call about the robbery, but also discussed whether to answer it or not and finally went to Code. 6 on the Crenshaw Corridor to “hide that they decided not to answer the call.”
Car recordings reveal their alleged Pokémon Go chase
According to the DICVS recording, Lozano instructed Mitchell to put his surname Code 6 in the hallway, laughing and saying of the captain, “I don’t want to be his help.”
That’s when they drove back through the alley and out of the mall.
The recording captures a few more minutes of radio traffic involved in the robbery and the pursuit of multiple suspects.
“After communications made a second attempt to contact the petitioners, officer Lozano asked if they should ‘ask [communications] if there is a message, “read court records.” Officer Mitchell replied, “It’s up to you. Whatever you think. I don’t want them to think we weren’t paying attention to the radio.’ Lozano replied, “Oh, it’s broken.”
Gomez has moved her concerns up the chain of command, leading to an investigation into internal misconduct.
And after listening to the DICVS recording a few times, the detective leading that investigation pieced together that the officers were playing Pokémon Go while on duty that day.
Example: Five minutes after Lozano said “twist it up,” Mitchell reported that Snorlax “just popped up” at 46th and Leimert.
“After noting that ‘Leimert didn’t go all the way to the 46th’, Lozano replied, ‘Oh, you [know] what I can do? I will [go] down 11th and swing up on Crenshaw. I know that way I can get to it “,” according to the filing. “Mitchell suggested another route, then said to Lozano, ‘We have four minutes. “
They are said to have spent the next 20 minutes discussing the game and driving to different locations, catching Snorlax and then chasing Togetic.
The recording shows them working to capture the creature on their phones, then saying, “The boys will be so jealous.” As they turned to end the clock, Mitchell said, “I got you a new Pokémon today, man.”
At a later hearing by the human rights panel, officers said they did not return calls because they needed to stay within their designated patrol area. They also claim that they are tracking a Pokémon tracking app on their phones but are not actually playing the game.
“The plaintiffs admit to leaving the slamming area in search of Snorlax, but they claim they did so ‘both’ as part of ‘additional patrols’ and to ‘hunt the creature down’ this myth'”, the document said.
The power panel unanimously found both guilty on all counts except for failing to handle a designated radio call, and recommended that they be removed from the department – a recommendation the chief of police said. show.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Morning version live blogs.
