Some may argue that video games are a bad influence on society, and while that’s up for debate, some LAPD officers may have taken their love of Pokémon GO a bit too seriously when they skipped a robbery to catch a Snorlax. For a game made primarily for children about loveable little creatures that are pretty family-friendly, Pokémon GO is no stranger to legal controversy. This is likely the strangest case of legal incidents involving video games there’s been in some time, but it does speak to Pokémon GO’s continued popularity.
When it first launched, Pokémon GO was a massive hit with Pokémon fans and non-fans alike, with millions all over the world playing the game, gathering in public places to catch hard-to-find Pokémon. Not everyone was happy about this, and there were reports of gamers trespassing on private property to catch a Pokémon that would otherwise be out of reach. While most were respectful of property boundaries and played the game in good, innocent fun, enough people complained that eventually, Niantic found itself hit with lawsuits. While those lawsuits didn’t result in major payouts or bans of the game, they did point out how addictive the game could be and how it could lead some to disregard others or their own responsibilities, too caught up in the game. It turns out, not even police officers are immune to the siren song of Pokémon GO.
A tweet thread from user stephentotilo highlights an incident in which a pair of LAPD officers failed to respond to a call about a robbery because they were busy trying to catch a Snorlax in Pokémon GO. According to official legal documents about the case, shortly after receiving a call about a nearby robbery, two officers instead chose to hunt for first a Snorlax and then a Togetic. Players have done some wild things in the spirit of the game, including a Pokémon GO boycott, but this is new. Recordings from their vehicle have about twenty minutes of the officers discussing the game, with one pointing out Pokémon locations to the other and providing directions so the two could go catch those Pokémon.
Apparently, the officers’ superiors weren’t happy with this lapse of official duty, because the officers were thereafter disciplined. The pair denied playing Pokémon Go, claiming instead that they were merely talking about the game and receiving text messages and alerts about it.
Clearly, Pokémon GO can still be pretty hard to resist, even for those with important duties to perform. With datamines suggesting that Pokémon Sleep will release in 2022, it’s possible that the Pokémon franchise will continue to maintain a strong grip on much of the world’s population. But, for those with important jobs like police officers, Pokémon, no matter how rare, can wait.
Source: stephentotilo/Twitter