Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose the worst driver of all?

It is an iron-clad crime movie cliche; the incompetent cops will crash, usually into each other, while the smooth criminal skillfully negotiates the most impossible of traffic situations. It does not matter whether the cops are the heroes (Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Rush Hour) or the bad guys (every other flick in recent memory....) or even an old tv show (have you ever wondered how much more money Boss Hogg could have embezzled if not for the millions...and millions of dollars he spent repairing the damage done to Hazzard County police cruisers in fruitless chases by Roscoe P. Coltrane and Enos?), you know one thing is for sure...the cops will crash.

The question this brings up is whether the cop-driving incompetence of movies is creative license for better movie making...or based on the 2.3 million dollar bill UK police have run up backing into things....