History Main / LemmingCops

** In ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed Carbon'', a cop car will often take up position in front of your car and stay there with remarkable precision. You can steer the cop car into oncoming traffic.
** Played around in the ''Hot Pursuit'' series. The [=AI=]-controlled basic police are not any smarter, but the interceptor units, human or [=AI=], are competent enough to be able to stop the racers.

Of course this is quite different from RealLife where police have training and procedures for pursuits. Watch any TV program on the subject and you will see the police are ''very'' careful, to the point of backing off and following by air if it looks like civilians will be harmed. RealLife cops will generally terminate (end) a pursuit when it becomes too fast or dangerous. Just as with other kinds of "unprofessional" behavior by the police, though, this trope may be relatively more justified in historical settings, since most police jurisdictions were less regulated and had much more freedom of action before about the 1970s or so.

* In ''Anime/MindGame'', it is a bunch of Yakuza crashing their cars like lemmings in pursuit of the protagonists.
* It happens quite a lot generally in the ''Anime/LupinIII'' franchise as a whole, but is taken up to 11 in ''Anime/TheFumaConspiracy'' where the police chase our protagonists through a crowded market, across a river, over a rickety bridge '''and''' through a traditional Japanese bathhouse. The trope is somewhat subverted in that the police cars mostly survive the chase, but they still managed to cause a lot of property damage and mental scarring to the poor bathers.

[[folder:Films]]
* While Buford T. Justice is TheDeterminator in ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'', the poor highway patrolmen who try to follow the Bandit off road or over a jump dramatically bow out of the pursuit shortly afterwards.

* ''Film/{{Taxi}} 2''. Dozens of police cars follow the main characters. Wherever the main characters' car goes, the police go as well -- all of them. The damage caused by the followed car is nothing compared to the destruction caused by the cops. Eventually one cop wrecks and ''all'' of the others plow into him and into the resulting wreckage. Not one police car survives. Accompanied by a great sound track, as well.
* ''Film/BatmanBegins''. Many cops engage Bruce Wayne's Tumbler in a high speed chase through highways and back streets as he's trying to save Rachel's life. Several spectacular crashes occur, with two or three car pileups, explosive caltrops being deployed, and the Tumbler even flattening another police cruiser. When Bruce gets back to the Batcave, Alfred (who has been following the news reports of the chase) tells him "It's a miracle no one was killed."
* Also, ''Film/BatmanReturns'': Batman's coming up to a narrow alley, pursued by a few cop cars because the Batmobile was being controlled by the Penguin in an attempt to frame him. Batmobile jettisons stuff to become the Batmissile, which can squeeze through the alley. The cop cars... can't. Cue half a dozen cars all smashing into each other in a magnificent pile-up.
* Double subversion in the movie ''Film/ShortTime'': the main character engages in this sort of behavior during a car chase... because ''he is actually [[SuicideIsPainless suicidal]]''. However he ends up miraculously surviving and gets a commendation!
* The SFPD cops who make the unwise decision to try to chase Film/JamesBond (who is driving a stolen fire engine) across the Third Street Bridge in ''Film/AViewToAKill''. The commanding officer makes the foolish mistake of stopping where his car gets crushed by the counterweight when the bridge is lowered.

* Used in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' series to almost comedic effect, the Lemming Cops will always follow The Agents pursuing the heroes no matter what, being as reckless as The Agents are, causing much potential loss of human life as The Agents do, in their simple binary pursuit of the heroes, and becoming, as needed, the vessels that The Agents use to continue to chase the heroes down.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'', as the police cars storming into the BigBad's mansion to rescue the heroes get into a chain-reaction rear-end collision when a pair of {{Mooks}} crashes during an attempted getaway.

* The original ''Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974'', where the police were played by actual LAPD officers, has a scene where only one car was supposed to crash, but the rest of the cars crash anyway because they found it fun (plus H. B. Hallicki provided the cars, which he'd bought over the course of several years, so they didn't have to answer for smashed up cars), although one officer was almost crushed by the light can on the top of the car.
* The Vegas cops in ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' not only crash into parked cars, walls, and each other as they pursue Bond, but they try to copy his RampJump and CarSkiing with disastrous results.
* In the chase at the beginning of ''Film/StrikingDistance'', the police continue to pursue a suspect even as their cars fall apart. Several end up over a hill.
* In ''Film/TheArtOfTheSteal'', the two motorcycle cops chasing Crunch in Warsaw follow in into the subway and on to a train: all while still on bikes.
* In two different {{Car Chase}}s in ''Film/TheManhunt'', cops mindlessly pursue Ethan Wayne's character and wreck multiple police cars along the way.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Subverted in ''Series/BlueHeelers'' when Jonesy pursues a suspect. When he is ordered to terminate the chase, he does (reluctantly), but does not acknowledge it to his superior, and when the suspect wraps his car around a tree Jonesy is very nearly brought up on disciplinary charges - the only thing that saves him is the discovery that the driver was probably on his mobile phone. Before he was chasing the suspect on a dirt road, when he couldn't see in the dust only to discover the suspect had stopped the (stolen, natch) car in the middle of the road, causing the police car to smash into it before flipping the bird and driving off.
** And subverted again in several episodes before that. The most notable example would probably be Brad, Susie's ex husband, who became a paraplegic after a pursuit ended in a crash. He blames himself for what happened but listening to Brad and the pursuit controller he was at least as in control and unlemming-like as most examples on this list, his only possible fault in hesitating to follow the order to terminate when he reports the suspect going 140 KPH (about 85 MPH) on a bad road.
* Happens in the ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episode "The Thief of Budapest". A lot of police cars get totalled as a result.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Dangerous Game", a Virginia deputy sheriff pursues a speeding car with civilian dressed Navy Seals and accidentally gets himself killed. The Navy Seal who drove the other car stands trial for negligent homicide. While this is obviously not played for fun, the writers were genre-savvy enough to have the sheriff back at the station watching ''Film/SmokeyandtheBandit''.

* ''Series/TheKillPoint'': During the initial robbery, an off-duty FBI agent who happened to be present in the bank's lobby at that moment, pursues the robbers and immediately starts a gunfight outside the building. [[TooDumbToLive A single person against five heavily armed and armored suspects with only her sidearm for back-up]]. She's lucky a security guard just ''happened'' to circle back to back her up, or all she would have accomplished is getting herself and/or innocent bystanders killed. They fall back into the building and turn the whole thing into a protracted hostage situation instead, and she later dies from her injuries in the hospital anyway.

* When the cops are after you in ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}'', they seek to chase and ram you no matter at what costs, up to kamikaze-like head-on collisions when both you and the cops are driving at maximum speed. This is justified by the fact that nobody can get out of their car, and the squad cars are actually [[CarFu the police's only weapon]] against you. In the sequels, the cops are smarter, but still not smart enough not to chase you [[RampJump over ramps]].
* The cops in the ''VideoGame/MidtownMadness'' games are ridiculously single minded in their attempts to run you off the road, including crashing through other traffic.

* ''[[VideoGame/JustCause Just Cause 2]]'' gives us the [[ArtificialStupidity notoriously thick]] Panauan military/police force. When on Rico's tail, they'll do anything to take him down, including crashing into each other and exploding, plunging off cliffs, blithely ignoring their [[DamageIsFire burning vehicle that's due to explode in seconds]], and sending streams of [[CurbStompbattle weak jeeps and motorcycles to challenge an armored vehicle.]]
* Cops in the ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' franchise are particularly dense, though they are ''mostly'' good about not plowing into cops on foot. Rival gangs are similarly prone to recklessly chasing you down in droves if you tick them off.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie''. As Emmett and Wyldstyle escape Bricksburg through a secret passageway in the city's backdrop. The pursuing police straight into the wall, spontaneously catching fire after a {{Beat}}.

* ''Series/TheKillPoint'': During the initial robbery, an off-duty FBI agent who happened to be present in the bank's lobby at that moment, pursues the robbers and immediately starts a gunfight outside the building. [[TooDumbToLive A single person against five heavily armed suspects with only her sidearm for back-up]]. She's lucky a security guard just ''happened'' to circle back to back her up, or all she would have accomplished is getting herself and/or innocent bystanders killed. They fall back into the building and turn the whole thing into a protracted hostage situation instead, and she later dies from her injuries in the hospital anyway.

* Parodied in ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' (picture above), with an ''unbelievably'' large number of cops. Made funnier in that, since the heroes are driving an old police car, and the use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved, the cops ''should'' be able to stop them, but they don't have the benefit of being on a MissionFromGod.
** The sequel was even worse, actually breaking the first film's world record for cars smashed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDEFL2fLGIE Check it out]].

* ''Series/SouthPark'':

In VideoGames, this tends to get TurnedUpToEleven with cops ''intentionally'' trying to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou crash into the player at full speed]] and ignoring everything else.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':

* Buford T. Justice in ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit''.