People slacking off at work isn’t exactly rare, but it becomes a real concern when it involves the police. Amid rising concerns over safety in the New York City subway system, Mayor Eric Adams urged the public to take photos of police officers caught playing on their phones instead of doing their jobs. It didn’t take long for social media to fill with such images, with many of them tagged directly to the mayor.
Although Adams promised to visit the relevant precincts the following day to investigate, those reports were met with silence. While some had expected as much, many still expressed disappointment over what they viewed as yet another empty promise. Public opinion began to shift, with a growing number of New Yorkers believing that the mayor’s statements were more about gaining sympathy than enforcing real accountability.
Even if we give the New York mayor the benefit of the doubt—after all, he can’t personally visit every location and confront every officer slacking off—there’s still been no significant change in the three years since his statement. Many police officers continue to shirk their duties, and photos of them playing on their phones remain buried on social media, collecting digital dust.
In response, a spokesperson from the NYPD Transit Bureau also issued a statement clarifying that officers are issued phones to receive updates and record their activities while on duty. Still, not everyone is convinced. Many citizens remain skeptical, arguing that too many officers appear disengaged and unproductive during working hours.
This case stands in stark contrast to the incident where a police officer was sued for feeding stray cats during work hours. Many New Yorkers argue that officers should stop staring at their screens and start paying closer attention to their surroundings to prevent crimes before they happen. “The running joke among us New Yorkers, young and old, is that they’re either playing Candy Crush or Pokémon Go,” one Redditor remarked.
Even people from outside New York shared similar sentiments. One user pointed out that nearly every time they passed by cops on traffic duty, the officers were just staring at their phones, ignoring the traffic they were meant to be managing. It became clear that this wasn’t just a New York problem; police officers in other cities were also slacking off during their shifts.
The criticism toward the police grew louder in the Reddit thread after users heard the news. Many believed that the police had been overfunded, and given how lazy some officers appeared to be, they argued it would be better to redirect that money toward other initiatives.
