Dashcam footage shows police ignoring robbery to play ‘Pokémon Go’

New dashcam footage has shown the moment when two police officers ignored an ongoing robbery to play Pokémon Go.

The two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were fired last year for “wilfully abdicating their duty” and spending approximately 20 minutes playing the mobile game.

Initially, the officers denied the accusations that they were playing a video game while on duty but admitted to failing to respond over radio. An internal investigation charged them with multiple counts of on-duty misconduct and cost them their positions in the LAPD.

In the dashcam footage that was edited by tech news outlet 404 Media, the officers are heard excitedly talking about a powerful Pokémon in the local area. They then laugh when they realised that they’ve driven the wrong way down a one-way street and pull an illegal U-turn to return back to the road.

New from 404 Media: we finally got the dash cam footage of the two LAPD cops who ignored a robbery in progress to play Pokemon Go. Shows they sped through residential areas, drove wrong way down one way street to chase Pokemon

“Got him!” one shoutshttps://t.co/rWI89guX5c pic.twitter.com/EMbl06vMGj

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) October 10, 2023

The entire recording is three hours long and at one point, a superior officer approached the two to ask what they were doing for 40 minutes while the robbery was carried out.

In response, the two officers lied and said that they didn’t hear the radio as they were not inside the car when it was called in, which was disproven by the dashcam footage.

Tomorrow (October 12), the Harvest Festival commences in Pokémon Go with the debut of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet‘s Smoliv and its evolutions Dolliv and Arboliva.

There will also be the Ticket Of Treats Timed Research exclusive event that will trigger encounters with Pumpkaboo and reward players with Mossy Lure Modules. This event is priced at $5 or the equivalent in the player’s regional currency.

However, players will be able to gift tickets to the Timed Research event to others who they are at a Great Friends or higher friendship status with.

In other gaming news, Fortnite‘s annual Halloween event has returned and will see Alan Wake, Jack Skellington and Michael Myers added to the battle royale.