Well, as far as can tell they were actually fired and it's explicitly the LAPD's official position that playing Pokemon Go is worse than being drunk on the job and not showing up for shifts:

Both officers tried to get reinstated by referencing a 1975 case in which an employee named Dr. Skelly who regularly drank alcohol on the job and skipped shifts was reinstated, but the Los Angeles police department argued that playing Pokémon Go and lying about it was by far a worse infraction: “The facts in Skelly showed that despite occasionally drinking one or two alcoholic beverages at lunch, not following Department work hours and having unexcused absences, Dr. Skelly's conduct did not affect the public service … Here, Petitioners' untruthfulness directly affects their ability to testify in criminal cases. They misused their positions to engage in playing games while on duty and using public resources and ignored their official law enforcement duties putting others in danger. Little else harms the public service more.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5q593/lapd-officers-ignore-robbery-in-progress-to-catch-snorlax-in-pokemon-go