The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday released video footage of two officers talking about catching a Pokémon Go character while ignoring a robbery call in 2017.
The exchange was captured on a dash cam in their police car, shedding light on an episode previously described only in department records and court documents.
Officers Luis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were fired in 2018 after a disciplinary panel unanimously ruled that they violated department policy by not backing up a colleague during an unfinished robbery call — and then lied about foul play when confronted by supervisors and internal affairs investigators.
The officers appealed the firing, and the case eventually went to the California Court of Appeals, which last year upheld a lower court’s decision that the Los Angeles Police Department was justified in the firings. Lozano and Mitchell have served in the position for approximately 17 and seven years, respectively.
The officers’ attorney, Greg Jakubian, said Friday that his clients were “treated unfairly.” His defense has long been that the department violated its own rules by using video surveillance recordings of their private conversations to prove their misconduct. He also said the officers were improperly interviewed without legal or labor representation present.
“The right to privacy of the officers is really what was at issue here, and there is no dispute that (the dashboard camera) was left inadvertently activated,” Yakubian said.
The incident occurred in the Crenshaw area on April 15, 2017, and department officials described it as a busy day when most of the officers on duty were tied up on calls.
Recorded conversations captured Lozano saying, “I don’t want to be his sidekick” in response to a Los Angeles police captain’s request for backup in a robbery involving multiple suspects at a Macy’s store in Crenshaw Mall. The officers were parked less than 200 yards away, the department said. When their patrol supervisor tried to call Lozan and Mitchell on their car radios to see if they could help other mall officers, he got no answer, department records show.
The warden repeatedly questioned Lazan and Mitchell about their whereabouts at the time of the incident, and they said they were in the park with loud music and talking with members of the community and did not hear the radio call.
After watching the video from their squad car, the warden concluded that the officers heard the call but chose to ignore it because they were playing Pokémon Go, a popular augmented reality game that invites players to visit real-world locations to “capture” digital creatures.
On Thursday, the city released roughly three hours of the officers’ dashcam video through its online records portal.
Officers could be heard discussing the game for more than 20 minutes as they drove to various locations known to feature fictional characters with names like Snorlax and Togetic.
At one point, one of the officers asks, “Are you watching the video or playing?”
“I’m watching a video,” replies the partner.
When initially asked if they were playing the game, the officers denied it, arguing that users were required to walk, not drive. Instead, officers said, they were monitoring a tracking program that players use to catch the “mythical” creatures.
An internal investigation led to the officers being charged with several violations, including failing to respond to a robbery call and making misleading statements to department officials.
During the officers’ disciplinary hearings, the department presented 16 pieces of evidence, including some evidence “identifying their words as part of the Pokémon Go lexicon,” LAPD records show.
The officers pleaded guilty to failing to respond to a radio call, but pleaded not guilty to the other counts. They denied playing Pokémon Go, but admitted they had put their feet up to find Snorlax – which they alternately claimed they did as part of a “social media event” related to the game, as part of “extra patrolling” and “chasing this mythical creature,” according to court records.
Disciplinary panels hearing cases against the officers in closed disciplinary hearings ruled unanimously against them – finding they had been “disingenuous and deceptive in their comments” to investigators and that their decision to play the game while on duty “breached public trust” and represented “unprofessional and disgraceful behavior,” according to court records.
Staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
