History Main / LemmingCops

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.

[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we'll say about it.]]

* 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.

* Parodied again in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', where Cartman and Kyle are riding their Big Wheels to California. A CHP Cruiser spots them and gives chase, [[LowSpeedChase at what could be no faster than 5mph]]. Despite this, the Police Car somehow manages to lose control and flip over the median.

* ''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. 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.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we'll say about it.]]

* ''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. 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 unjuries in the hospital anyway.

* ''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. 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 unjuries in the hospital anyway.

* Used in ''Franhise/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.

* In the ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' episode "Death Race 2010", Panty and Stocking chase after a ghost appropriately named "Speed Freak" through the city. Every last police officer in Daten City ends up chasing after it as well in their efforts to stop him. They eventually all pile up on him in an effort to stop him. ''Thousands'' of police cars piling up into a mountain, but Speed Freak still easily tosses them aside.

* Happens in first episode of season 2 of ''Series/StrangerThings'', in which a ChaseScene ends with three police cars crashing into another in front of a tunnel.

* Cops in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series are completely reckless in their pursuit of the player -- they'll follow you off cliffs, into water, and plow through traffic, often causing explosive pile-ups. Sometimes the player's "Wanted" level will increase because so many cops have killed themselves in the chase. It gets even ''more'' ridiculous when, in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', you turn on the cheat where going fast enough causes cars to ''[[SloMoBigAir fly]]''

* Parodied again in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', where Cartman and Kyle are riding their Big Wheels to California. A CHP Cruiser spots them and gives chase, at what could be no faster than 5mph. Despite this, the Police Car somehow manages to lose control and flip over the median.

* When the cops are after you in ''{{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]].

* Happens in the ''Series/MacGyver'' episode "The Thief of Budapest".

** 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.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Dangerous Game", a Virginia deputy sheriff pursues a speeding car with civilian dressed Navy Seals and accidently 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''.

* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt''. Dear God, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hXqYHJ_kvg Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt]]. This has to be seen for yourself. Still, it may be a bit of a subversion in that the cops are on the protagonist's side, and they actually manage to do some real damage, even if it is, like expected of anything of lemming-like persuasion, the most pyrrhic victory ever.

** The same also seems to, very ironically, apply to paramedics too - the ambulances seem to exhibit much the same behaviour as the cop cars, causing more fatalities than they prevent: it's very common for them to run over half a dozen people in their attempt to reach a single wounded person, then run over a few more after they're done.

%%* Movie example: ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit''.
* 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, the cops ''should'' be able to do what they do, though they didn't have the benefit of being on a MissionFromGod.

* ''Film/BatmanBegins''. Many cops engage him 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 are deployed at one point, and the Batmobile even drives over a police cruiser, crushing it. 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."

* The SFPD cops who make the unwise decision to try to chase Film/JamesBond (who is driving a stolen fire engine) in ''Film/AViewToAKill''.

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''{{Reno 911}}'' in an interview with Deputy Travis Junior, he mentions an incident when he was chasing drug runner "Fast Eddie" [=McLintock=] with about 15 other cruisers. The lead cruiser wrecked and started a pileup. Deputy Junior mentions that he saw the wreck about a mile up, as he was the last in line, but he just floored it, because how often do you get to be in a 15 car pileup?

* In ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'', this is played for laughs when an obstinate police officer (who looks suspiciously like she wandered off the set of YoureUnderArrest) gives chase to Sousuke and Chidori double-riding a stolen bike using her squad car and fails epically. The next time we see her, she mentions she's on probation due to wrecking the car.

* This trope was one of the basic comedic ingreditents of ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard''. In almost every episode, the General Lee would be chased by Sheriff Coltrane, and often also by one or more of his deputies in their cars. Despite the chases usually ending with one or more totalled police vehicles, Coltrane seemed to enjoy the chase just as much as the Dukes.

* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'', almost every episode.

* ''NeedForSpeed Most Wanted'': Crashing into one of the marked buildings or roadside objects during pursuit will cause it to crush down on the police cars chasing you.

** In ''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.

** The best part: [[EverybodyOwnsAFord Every single one of the wrecked police cars is a Peugeot]]. Several different models from compacts to vans, but all Peugeots. Then again, the ''Film/{{Taxi}}'' series does border on blatant Peugeot ProductPlacement.
* ''Film/BatmanBegins''. Despite Batman's "no killing" creed (which the cops don't know about), many cops engage him in a high speed chase through highways and back streets as he's trying to save Rachel's life. Several spectacular crashes occur with 2 or 3 car pileups, explosive caltrops are deployed at one point, and the Batmobile even drives over a police cruiser, crushing it. 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." Er, yeah.
** They try to justify it in the direct sequel ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', by giving the Batmobile "lifesign sensors." It knows which cars are okay to blow up.

* Older than ''all'' of these are the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Kops Keystone Kops]].

* Averted in TheRock. Sean Connery is able to dodge the police by using wreckless driving and the abilities his Hummer has that the cops can't equal and they eventually fall behind. Nicholas Cage is able to keep up, but uses better knowledge of the city, plus the abilities of a Ferrari and a motorcycle