When it comes to Pokemon, they say you’ve “Gotta catch ’em all.”
That’s perfectly fine as far as the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office is concerned — so long as one doesn’t take hunting of the virtual critters to the extreme.
Stories have arisen around the country about people who compromised their own safety and that of others on their quest to advance forward on the game Pokemon Go since its release on July 6, drawing the attention of Sheriff Greg Champagne, who issued a cautionary warning related to the game last week.
The free-to-play game, which is downloaded using a smartphone app, utilizes a mobile phone’s GPS capability to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures called Pokemon, who pop up on the phone’s screen as if they were in the same real world location as the player. The game was an instant hit worldwide, with an estimated 75 million people downloading the game.
However, some players throw caution to the wind in hopes of “leveling up” their beasts.
Some people have reportedly been playing the game while driving. Others, noted Champagne, have wandered into “places they should not be” in search of their next catch. Because the app’s GPS coordinates alert players whether there is a
Pokemon in the region — and because some open area sites, called “Pokemon gyms,” allow players to battle on the game — a high volume of players can be prone to show up in an area at once.
Sometimes, that can be at a park. Other times, it can be someone’s front lawn or even backyard.
“We’ve had quite a few calls relaying suspicious activity,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes. “You had high volumes of people showing up in front of someone’s house … particularly when the game was first released, people didn’t know what to make of it. Now, everyone knows what it is, but it still isn’t ideal.”
It becomes a bigger issue on the roadway.
Champagne emphasized particular caution in this area, stating in a press release that “People have their head buried in their cellphone and don’t realize they are swerving off of the roadway while driving, walking into traffic or putting themselves in numerous other dangerous situations due to their mind, attention and line of sight being in a much less important direction.”
Yoes concurred, saying as far as he is concerned, playing the game while behind the wheel is no different than texting while driving, which is against the law.
“I don’t see any difference in the two,” Yoes said. “You’ve got distracted drivers with people looking down at their phone screens. It’s a unique situation. I can’t say I can think of any kind of app that’s created the same kind of situation.”
Yoes said there have been no reports of injuries locally, but the Sheriff’s Office wanted to ensure the same kind of incidents that have been reported in other regions don’t arise here.
Champagne asked parents to speak to their children about playing the game and the dangers of losing awareness to one’s surroundings while playing in public. He also noted the game is played by people of all ages and a child should not play the game with strangers.
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