I’m a bit of a reluctant addict for the many fly-on-the-wall cop shows pumped out and repeated over and over by satellite TV stations.

You’ve been there: flicking through the stations trying to find something to watch and you alight upon a car chase through a council estate, filmed from the front grille of a police car. Brilliant.

There are loads of shows: Sky Cops, Police Stop!, Traffic Cops, Police Camera Action!… the list goes on and on.. and on.

They are really cheap to make and sadly police forces across Britain seem to be queuing up to get the free publicity that goes with these reality shows.

For the real danger producers often need to drop in some video footage from the USA. There a driver is pretty likely to step out of the car and unload his new 9mm pistol.  Great telly.

Back in the UK, Sgt Sid Nobody gets a hunch that there’s something not quite right with the driver of the battered old Nissan Micra with multi-coloured doors and treadles tyres.

And look, tin foil on the floor, ‘drug paraphernalia’ our expert sergeant assures the viewer.

Sure enough the painfully thin driver, with pupils the size of two pence pieces and a face littered with acne, turns out to be a heroin addict.

He gets nicked. His, equally stoned, pal gets left to make his own way home and the cops call out a tow truck to get the ‘death trap’ Nissan (bought for £150) off the street.

A job well done then boys.

But is it?

Answer no. Most of these petty criminals or unfortunates seems to receive a ridiculously light sentences.

In another show I watched one young fella lead chasing police a merry dance in his mum’s car running off the road and with sparks coming off the wheels, he took a while to catch. He was banned from driving by a court and received a community service order.

I watched another chase of some oik in an old Ford Sierra. He was on the motorway refusing to pull over. He pulled a couple of – in my opinion - quite stylish driving stunts as he attempted to give FOUR police cars the slip only to be nicked eventually. He was already banned, so he got a fine and extension - but no prison term.

These were two of many such chases, which I watch with fascination but always think “I hope I’m never on the road when one of these is going on”.

These people should be locked up for a very long time. Of course the programmes have no time to research the court case and give background because the breathless Scouse commentator has to move onto the next “amazing” footage.

I find the whole thing a bit sinister if I’m honest. The police involved seem to take themselves far too seriously and the “criminals” they catch are mostly low-life trash who today’s society seem to believe need a second, third and fourth chance before they see the inside of a prison cell.

No these TV cops need to catch some real criminals, proper bad people doing terrible things then forced to face the full wrath of the law.

Imagine how Police Stop! Would have handled the arrest of the environmentalist who mistakenly ate an endangered British crayfish. He was fined a whopping £3,500.

That’s more like it.

Or the pet shop owner who sold a goldfish to a 15-year-old boy – she was fined £1,000 and is electronically tagged as well.

That’s a proper punishment.

And, the experienced, fully taxed and insured, biker doing 122mph who was jailed for six months and banned from driving. That is more like justice.. isn't it?

Telly blokes take note.

Politicians, come on let’s get some reality into our legal system (and ban police from reality shows too).

I feel exactly the same way when watching these programmes. They summarise at the end the sentances given out and they are usually quite pitiful when considering the amount of people put at risk.