His time is his own. His time on duty is NOT his own. The cop was wrong.
Seesh, you are the ONLY person to have a rational observation on this entire thread?
I won't bother to say 'shame' on the others, they obviously have none.
How about walking through the park -— if he was on that beat-— for 45 minutes? And aren’t there more people to protect in a church, than in a park?
If the higher-ups let him do it, and even (as the story says) encouraged him to do it for 20 years, there must have been a strong policing-related rationale.