What is the justification for multiple cops sitting in a parking lot talking to each other?

I see this literally every night when I drive home from work. Two cop cars parked facing opposite directions so that the cops can sit there and talk to each other.

How is this not considered a waste of tax payer money? They’re getting paid to just sit around and talk to each other. I really can’t figure out how they can even go about justifying this either. I mean if the officers had to talk to each other there are radios in every car that can be used for communication. Can’t have chatter on the radio? Use your cell phone. (its not like I don’t literally see cops driving down the road on their cells all the bloody time, but that’s a whole other discussion :P)

I understand that there isn’t always things for an on duty officer to be doing but you need to have that many on because in case something does happen but wouldn’t it serve the town/city much better if instead of having 2+ cars in one parking lot they were spread out down the highway in different lots to better monitor the roads for drunk drivers etc?