As the old saying goes, “You snooze, you lose” and for two Philadelphia cops who fell asleep on duty, it might just cost them their jobs.
The incident took place after a passerby snapped a photo of two Philadelphia police officers snoozing away in their patrol car. The image, which was gone viral, set off a firestorm of backlash and has prompted the Philadelphia Police Department to open an investigation into the matter.
“They are two Philadelphia police officers. Apparently this happened over the weekend, I believe Friday night into Saturday morning,” Lt. John Stanford told [__CBS News Philly__](http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/11/09/philadelphia-police-officers-sleeping-on-the-job-now-under-investigation/?cid=facebook_CBS_Philly).
“That’s when we received the first information from citizens out there posting this on social media.”
Law enforcement officials say that the photograph was taken in the 24th Police District that covers the neighborhoods of Kensington and Port Richmond in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.
Stanford told the outlet that both unidentified cops put their safety at risk and the fact that someone could take a picture so close to their patrol car and they did not wake up is unacceptable and alarming.
“This paints everyone with that broad brush and putting the message out there that we’re not doing our jobs,” he said. “The investigation is underway and appropriate disciplinary action will take place.”
Stanford also confirmed to [__ABC 6 Action News__](http://6abc.com/news/investigation-underway-into-sleeping-philadelphia-officers/1077949/) that Internal Affairs has been briefed on the matter and is making sure this never happens again.
“I know there’s a tremendous amount of men and women that come to work each day and give the city 110 percent of their time and effort in doing good police work,” Standford told ABC 6 Action News. “This is not a depiction of the entire department.”
The Philadelphia cops taking a nap on the job comes at a time when the safety of cops has been compromised, such as when two NYPD officials were killed in cold blood last December during their lunch break in broad daylight.
“There’s a safety concern which is the biggest element of all,” Stanford added. “That someone was able to take a picture close enough to them without waking them up… It could’ve been deadly to be very honest.”
