Why was he called PacMan?

It was from the colour of the replacement car, after the first one got smashed. I think it was first coined when they drove the new car into the police parking lot. The Pacman game was at the height of its popularity at the time - so it would have been an 'in' joke.

There's a policeman in my neighborhood that everyone calls "PacMan". I guess they got that name from this movie.

Pancakes!
No Pancakes!
Pancakes!
I'm not *beep* Pancakes!

They called him Pac Man because they drove up in yellow car...during that time Pac Man was a popular game, as someone already mentioned, but the Pac Man in the game is also yellow.

They called him PAC MAN because of a cop in L.A. during the 1980s named Tony Moreno who was know by all gang members. They called him Pac-Man because of his trademark yellow car and because he was know to gobble up gangbangers. He arrested a lot of them. The Crips and Bloods hated and respected him at the same time. Sean Penn plays his character in the movie.

Google the name PAC MAN, Tony Moreno and you can read all about it.

Did any of you guys actually watch the film.....In the scene where they meet with the LA Country Sheriffs, and they pull up in the yellow car, the new one they were assigned after wrecking their other car....Sy Richarson..says "Come on pacman, we ain't going in that thing"....Then Penn says Pacmans his street name...ya dig, holmes...that dude was fly holmes

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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

" This is the real answer. Please forget & ignore everyone else's half cocked , partial theoretical posts as to the reason they think is why.
.... It wasn't just Penn's name. It was a name for him & his older partner Hodges ( Robert Duvall ) & a blanket stereotype nickname for the entire police force. This was long before people called the police " 50 " or " One Time " or "Po Po" as it is commonly known now. Pac Man was & is a reference used because , first of all , if you know the movie & paid close attention to the dialogue & the discussion as well , then in that scene when the first time that name came up , the vehicle they were given for their street patrols was the color " yellow. " The same color as Pac Man.
Also , in conclusion , it is also a reference to Pac Man when he or his partner Hodges go after the bad guys in this yellow car called " Pac Man " just like Pac Man went after the ghosts & busted the ghosts by eating them up. In this case , Sean Penn & Robert Duvall ( Hodges ) never actually literally eat the bad guys up, but consume them in theory by arresting them & taking them out of the game or the equation for a short time by taking the to jail. The same way when Pac Man eats the ghosts , they retreat to the center of the screen momentarily to recuperate after being gobbled up & then return back into the maze & go after Pac Man again.
... So basically , the reason why they were called Pac Man , was initially because , if you remember , their new requisitioned undercover car given to them to use after their other car was totaled , their new car given to them for street patrol was a really , really bright yellow vehicle. That is where the phrase " Pac Man " was coined. Then Sean Penn added to the theory by happenstance that not only is the car color bright yellow like Pac Man , but Pac Man had the ability to catch vulnerable ghosts the same way that Sean Penn & Robert Duvall were catching vulnerable criminals off guard the way they did to their advantage. The bright yellow color of the car they were given was the first reason why they were given the name Pac Man.
Then the other was because they go after the bad guys like Pac Man does the ghosts after eating a power pellet. I think the power pellet in this case , in a proverbial sense , was the evidence of drugs or guns found & caught & ceased of the bad guys as the power pill. Evidence was the power pill to energize them as Pac Man to gobble them or arrest them & send them to prison , the same was the ghosts were sent to the top center of the screen when eaten by Pac Man. I hope this clears things up. The rest of those answers , nobody knows what the Hell they are talking about , so don't listen to them or take anything the wrong as a comment or response , seriously. I know the real reason why they got the nickname Pac Man & now you know the reason as of now , too. "