Brit cop photographed playing PSP on duty

Bobby on duty in East London photographed hard at work...playing soccer game on his PlayStation Portable.

A police officer on duty in East London was photographed playing a soccer game on a PlayStation Portable while sitting in his car, according to The Sun. The cop was supposed to be keeping an eye on a crumbling wall, which posed a threat to public safety in the wake of several storms. Recently, a 2-year-old was crushed by a wall that collapsed as a result of the weather. The Sun claims the photo was taken by "a builder," who said the cops "were oblivious to everything else." In response, the local Metropolitan Police department said, "The use of the games console was inappropriate and unprofessional. Senior officers are dealing with the matter." The PSP has gotten British city workers in trouble before. In March 2006, a city bus driver was fired for playing with the handheld while passengers were onboard.

166 Comments

  • lordofevilcr

    Posted Feb 4, 2007 9:38 am PT

    Big deal >.>. Geez, like you wouldn't get bored watching a wall for hours...

  • irunongames

    Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:57 pm PT

    That reminds me of the ps3 comercials.

  • stillings

    Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:06 am PT

    Why not take all the "brick'd" PSPs and build a new wall?

  • e1337prodigy

    Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:40 am PT

    Mcgnnis1, Yes 'soccer' is popular in england as much as american football is popular in USA. Yes they are very easy to play on d-pad systems. Strag3n, 'silly people' would have been approriate. But using British is offensive. Edit: I'm ready for loads of abuse now.

  • jtvbetta

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 10:50 pm PT

    Sony should hire this cop, they owe him that much, hehe.....

  • UltraWoody

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 8:52 pm PT

    I'm no PSP supporter, but the fact an officer of the law taking time out of his day to enjoy some quality gaming makes me feel all warm inside.

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 7:55 pm PT

    Why is this a big deal?

  • Mcgnnis1

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 6:36 pm PT

    Wow. That's pretty weird. i guess soccer is very popular in England. But more importantly he should be watching the wall. I guess PSP is a cool system. Does anybody know are soccer games any good on PSP??

  • L1qu1dSword

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 5:47 pm PT

    see? the psp has been proven to be marginally more entertaining then watching a brick wall. how is that for a pro-sony article?

  • winnazdaluza

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:56 pm PT

    police watching a wall??? so what if it started to fall, was he to jump out of his car and use his super speed and streanght to grab the innocent bystanders away from the OBVIOUSLY DANGEROUSLY UNSTABLE wall which should have been torn down or fenced.

    I mean seroiusly does that mean the builders are blindly going about their job??

  • Scammeleon

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:27 pm PT

    Oh, and the headline doesn't read something "evil games industry generates killer wall funds and police degeneration and corruption"
    Because its not the daily mail...
    (oh and chill out "mwa")

  • Scammeleon

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:18 pm PT

    Yes okay, its daft. But my theory is that whoever's in charge of this bobby must've thought: "oh we've got that drugs raid today and i just know that young officer'll make us look bad in front of the drugies with his electric football obsession, i know, he can watch that deadly wall i've heard the locals having haunt their dreams, unless it somehow outsmarts him..."

  • mwa

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:12 pm PT

    well the sun is a tabloid more than anything else...raking the muck at the bottom of the journalistic barrel as usual (i don't even know if the term "journalism" is appropriate in this context)

  • Romanticide

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 3:59 pm PT

    Actually I'm surprised the headline didn't scream 'Evil Video Games Corrupt Our Nation's Bobbies - PSP distracts brave copper from killer wall' or something like that...

    That does sound a lot like something coming from The Sun. God that "news"paper is just the lowest form of dumb next to gossip magazines.

  • 1SleepyGit

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 2:57 pm PT

    Wait, this cop was sent to watch a wall? Watch a fricking wall?! Our police forces are already stretched as they are, whose brilliant idea was it to waste taxpayers' money and police resources on something like that which could have been done by the builders themselves? If there were builders there then they could have watched it themselves while they worked on it!

    Idiots, all of them. If anyone should get fired it should be whoever ordered the cop to watch that wall in the first place. I blame Tony!

  • Strag3n

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 1:43 pm PT

    ha silly british people

  • RicardoJr99

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 11:31 am PT

    seriously could you be bothered to sit and watch a wall without doing something like that

  • s0ck69

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 9:51 am PT

    typical british police doing anything other than the job the british public pay them to do

  • weaponx178

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 8:42 am PT

    This is rediculous man... how is a cop supposed to watch a freakin wall? its not like he can do anything about it if it falls...so big woop he got tired of staring at a freakin wall and decided to play futbol on his pscrap...honestly they shoulda just tore down the wall if it was such a hazard. DAMN!!!

  • TH3_Nameless

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 8:25 am PT

    ...What should i say, is PSP so addictive?? Fun
    Like it was the cops fault that the wall collapsed..Maybe it was

  • flanderosa

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 8:16 am PT

    A builder? Hahahahaha. Photographer for the Sun more like. Funny how this 'builder' sold his picture to the Sun and then let the Metropolitan Police know about it...funny that...

    In fact, I wonder if he ever let the Met know about it all...

    Actually I'm surprised the headline didn't scream 'Evil Video Games Corrupt Our Nation's Bobbies - PSP distracts brave copper from killer wall' or something like that...

  • Romanticide

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 8:02 am PT

    lol owned, he should be catching chavs >=(

  • uberjannie

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 7:08 am PT

    Ok? Hope he wont get fired because of this?
    That would be redicilous. He cant actually hold the wall up if it falls down.
    So the point in guarding a wall is dumb. Would be better just to fix it or tear it down..

  • LorenaLarue

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 6:39 am PT

    OOH! Asa brit cop myself I understand his boredom.

  • twoism

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:51 am PT

    Only in East London....

  • G_W_X

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 4:33 am PT

    I hope this isn't a thing where you american folk are trying to make.pick fun at british folks make them look bad or somthing?
    Is it?
    Besides its not so bad. He was only playing a meager PSP.
    Now if he was playing the wonderful Nintendo DS, that,THAT would be somthing to talk about!

    Then I would say definetly this guy should be doing his duty.

    Well come on what do expect me to say? I dont like PSP do I?
    Anyway its never good when guys at work go to play. That they should do it in their own spare time! They know better!
    tsk.

  • TTDog

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 3:36 am PT

    Just a few points from someone who lives in the UK;

    1) This story is over a week old.
    2) The 2 year old who was crushed was flattened by a wall that collapsed in high winds, the wall was not previously known to be unsafe and could have been walking down a street with his parents when the thing fell on him.
    3) The cop in question was there to keep people away from the wall, which had been reported as moving in the wind, until the local council came to take care of the situation either with a sign, reinforcing the wall or just blocking the area into which it could fall. Its his duty to protect the public, not piss around playing football (not the American "Soccer", football, a game where the ball is moved using the foot, only the Americans could call a game where the ball is thrown or carried football, the ball is kicked like 10-15 times in the whole game for pity's sake). At most he'd have been there a few hours until the lazy arsed council got into action. The picture was certainly not photoshopped either.
    4) Unlike American cops british police aren't armed, so unlike Amercan cops he couldn't just sit there and play with his gun to keep himself amused.

    And Generic_Dude, how paranoid are you? Suggesting that the picture was taken by someone who had it in for the copper, I suppose all the postman are really FBI agents checking your mail for assassination plans to bump off the President and the lad that delivers your paper is just doing it the practice throwing Anthrax out of planes for when he carries out his plan to takeover the world.

    Fianlly, its fine to take the piss out of the UK police, some forces have recently NOT given out pictures of wanted men as it waould be, "an infraction against their human rights" to be identified in this way. So the public were expected to keep an eye out for these dangerous criminals, but weren't allowed to know what they looked like. Marvellous.

  • TryMe01

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 3:30 am PT

    i bet the photograph was photoshopped...

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 3:15 am PT

    As kavadias1981 said, a sign would have been better.

  • nevereathim

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 2:26 am PT

    Man that is good, it means that PSP is good, and they even play it at work

  • PrestontheDog

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 2:13 am PT

    The police play PSP's? I thourght that these guys where like all serious and never had fun.

    Sparejesus you rock and so correct about what you said.

  • CausticBox

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 1:14 am PT

    Wow, an article about police officers in Britain playing PSP while watching a wall. Gamespot must've been running out of stories to post this.

  • lovermanxxx

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 12:50 am PT

    sparejesus you crack me up G

  • HXCDEW

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 12:49 am PT

    Hahaha I agree with whoever said "And if the wall had fallen on someone the headline on Gamespot would read "PSP crushes wall onto boyscout. Sony refuse to apologise." .... All GS wants is excuses to blame Sony. What next, Iran launches nukes with PS3's cell processor?....... Anyway, give the cops a break, watching a wall must be boring as hell. There ain't much exciting crimes here compared to the US.

  • GFofgaming

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 12:32 am PT

    I agree, watching a wall can be the most boring thing ever.

  • anarchicgoth

    Posted Jan 31, 2007 12:23 am PT

    wow those brits really get brainwashed by that thing dont they!

  • Dolacide

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 11:59 pm PT

    Watching a wall can get pretty boring I assume.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 11:34 pm PT

    You know, a barrier with a sign that said "Caution, Danger of collapse" would have made more sense. It would have put a bobby on a more important job and would have actually made people aware of the dangerous wall.

    Don't anybody come to the UK. The system here is a joke to the point of madness!

  • Bathyj

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 10:01 pm PT

    And if the wall had fallen on someone the headline on Gamespot would read "PSP crushes wall onto boyscout. Sony refuse to apoligise."


    Why is it the cops job to watch a wall. I know they dont have guns but they can still chase crooks and yell "Oi, you're nicked matey !"

  • Rhaxdric

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 9:10 pm PT

    Hahaha, them Brits love their PSPs, give 'em a break.

  • robfield

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 9:10 pm PT

    Did they expect him to literally look at the wall all day?

  • Smo17

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:41 pm PT

    wow, who cares?

  • weaponx178

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:38 pm PT

    Oh come on take a chill pill I mean its not like he was hurtin somebody...my man was just chillin playin his fifa and whatnot you know takin it easy. Now if he had a small screen tv and a ps2 or ps3 hooked up in his squad car now that's a different story

  • maniaxe613

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:16 pm PT

    Bad cop! No donut!

  • Deiuos

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:11 pm PT

    Damn it Sony, why you gotta make people do such things!

  • ShadowBass989

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:04 pm PT

    lol, he could have seen if a person got to close to it. n e way i want a photo as well.

  • Gmacrusher

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:03 pm PT

    Now that is hilarious...i want to see pictures!

  • jpazhman

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:01 pm PT

    I don't there should be anything wrong with that.

  • EddyG0RD0

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 8:01 pm PT

    Big Deal.

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