Basic Trope: Multiple cops do things that place themselves and the public in danger when chasing a perpetrator.
- Straight: The police force chases Bob through a farmer's market, and the police follow him through it.
- Exaggerated: The entire police department of a major city chases after Bob. One car crashes, and another, and another. Then they catch on fire. And explode.
- Downplayed: The police chase after Bob as he goes through a farmer's market, but they slow down to avoid accidents.
- Justified:
- The police force in Bob's city have lax standards on driving qualifications.
- The unit tasked with chasing Bob is made of newer recruits who aren't as experienced with high-speed pursuits.
- The police force is lead by a commissioner that believes in catching a perpetrator no matter the cost.
- The police force is made of robots who are not Three Laws-Compliant and are goal-based rather than utility-based agents.
- Inverted: Bob slows down and avoids a crowded farmer's market and the entire police force slow down and avoid it as well.
- Subverted:
- Bob goes into a farmer's market, but the farmer's market is nearly empty, and the police can follow him without incident.
- Bob drives into a farmer's market. The police are about to follow him, but turn into a parallel street instead to meet him on the other side.
- Double Subverted: ...said "parallel street" is actually a shopping mall.
- Parodied: "Welcome to Police Driving 101! Our first lesson is Reckless Pursuit of a Suspect..."
- Zig Zagged: Bob drives through a market, and the police go around it, but then he goes through a park, and they follow him through anyways.
- Averted: Bob stops and surrenders before he has a chance to try evading the cops in a farmer's market.
- Enforced: The directors of the film Cops and Tropers are anti-authority and want to portray the police as reckless and incompetent in their movie.
- Lampshaded: Bob, the suspect, shakes his head as he drives away from a 20-car pileup of police vehicles, telling them that they suck at driving.
- Invoked: Bob steals a car because he wants police to pursue him and wreck themselves in the process, as he wants to cause massive destruction and chaos.
- Exploited: Bob sees the police trying to mimic his movements and crashing, and uses their doggedness against his pursuers.
- Defied: The police follow a perp into a dangerous obstacle course. The police are about to follow him, but break off pursuit, reasoning that it is too dangerous.
- Discussed: "Those cops really want to get you. They might even follow you through that market!"
- Conversed: A dirtied cop climbs out of his wrecked cruiser and keys his radio: "Man, this stuff happens too much. We should stop driving like this."
- Implied: Several dozen cop cars pull back into the station with smashed hoods and broken windshields.
- Deconstructed: The New Trope City Police Department chases after Bob and suffers a twenty-car pileup. It turns into a media fiasco, with the press tearing the NTCPD a new one for endangering the public and mourning the loss of the several dozen police officers and civilians that died needlessly in the incident. Sobbing widows and orphaned children are dragged out and featured in documentaries about the incident to give their testimony. After a public outcry, an investigation is conducted, exposing the gross incompetence of members of the force, lax safety training, and corruption at the highest levels. Members of the force are fired, new legislation is passed, and the NTCPD emerges as a more safety-aware organization.
- Reconstructed: Trope Tech Incorporated is hired on to produce a robotic police force designed to minimize human casualties when pursuing a suspect, following a series of police pursuit incidents. Seeing promise in the initiative, they put robots on the force. The robots recklessly pursue the suspect, but since they are cheaper to replace than officers, and are statistically less likely to injure bystanders, the police keep the robots on the force.
- ——
