Over the course of their shift, Malloy and Reed deal with a racist gas station owner who is tired of being the victim of repeated robberies. When they catch the suspect, supposedly a black man, they find he is actually just an equally-racist white man in blackface. Other calls include a hitchhiker who extorts money from drivers she leaves in embarrassing situations, and a drunk who is seeing pink elephants.

Malloy and Reed are patrolling the outskirts of Los Angeles when a girl on horseback alerts them to a small plane that landed in a secluded area. When the officers investigate, they see a pickup truck fleeing and the plane trying to take off; though they stop the plane, they have no proof the pilot did anything. Malloy and Reed later learn from the DEA that a Mexican cartel is behind the landings, with the pilot instructed to play dumb if caught. The officers find the pilot and trace the pickup truck's location, and the truck is followed to the landing site, where the smuggler and the pilot are arrested.

Reed and Malloy rush an 8-year old to Rampart Emergency Hospital, where he is diagnosed with diabetes. Scared of the hospital, Jimmy runs off, and it's up to Reed and Malloy to find him before he goes into a diabetic coma. Elsewhere, Malloy's new girlfriend, Cathy, mans a hospital telephone hotline. Sherry, a 15-year old junkie, is threatening suicide to escape her troubled life. Malloy and Reed need to find her fast, before she OD's.

During Malloy's birthday, he lets Reed know he does not enjoy surprise parties, but becomes increasingly suspicious and believes the others are actually planning a surprise party, much to his chagrin; it is soon revealed that is not the case. Meanwhile, Sgt. MacDonald warns the officers about a rash of robberies using milk crates to break store windows; during a routine traffic stop, Reed notices a milk crate in the back of a car and surreptitiously marks it for identification later, and the thief is apprehended later using the same milk crate. Calls include a backup call for a jewelry store robbery when the officers pull over the owner of said store for DUI, an embarrassed male purse snatching victim inside a negligee shop, a phony gas station worker at a closed gas station, a shootout in the police garage between the entire station and a drunk suspect officers failed to handcuff, and Officer Wells capturing a B&E suspect based on a hunch by Malloy.

Malloy and Reed encounter an armed private investigator from out of state, who is in Los Angeles to find a bail jumper. Later the PI is in the middle of an altercation with two black men, one of which is injured; the PI claims the men tried to rob him, but the men tell a different story, and Sgt. MacDonald orders the PI arrested. The PI is found roughing up the bail jumper and is arrested. Calls include an elderly man wanting a group of cars driven by hippies ticketed for illegal parking, and a woman who demands the officers ticket her husband's car because he refuses to replace the balding tires on it.

Reed spreads his flu to several other officers, leaving the station undermanned. Calls include a shootout with a rifle-toting bookie, an argument between a storekeeper and a customer over a cantaloupe during an unrelated traffic stop, Reed locating a burglar after seeing a flashlight inside a store, and a teenager evading Reed in a foot pursuit. Due to the understaffing situation, Malloy and Reed are asked to do double shifts, and Malloy tickets a woman for turning right at a red without stopping. Later, Sgt. MacDonald assigns them to drive around a police commissioner for the night; the commissioner is actually the woman Malloy ticketed.

While on second shift, Malloy and Reed take Police Commissioner Dixon on a ride-along. They encounter a bar owner who locked a naked, elderly man inside, a fight with a knife-wielding man and another man with a gun, and a missing 17-year-old deaf boy with mental instabilities, which Reed recognizes as the boy that escaped his foot pursuit in the previous episode.

Reed spends a Saturday night talking about buying a used car, during the watch the officers handle a possible DUI but the driver passes the field sobriety tests, a shooting during which a man kills his recently paroled son-in-law, a car stripper, trick a man into revealing his name after pulling him over for speeding and finding the car has over $900 of unpaid tickets, and two beatings at motels.

Malloy and Reed spot a runaway young boy hiding in the woods and prepare to take him home, then respond to his address for a disturbance and find his mother and step-father quiet. They return a second time with the couple throwing things at each other and break it up. A third call to the same address forces the officers to send the husband to his sister's house, but he returns to the apartment and when he does, shots ring out just as the officers arrive for the fourth time. Calls include a motorist encountering a girl who offers him drugs, a man trying to break into his own truck after his dog locked him out, and a drunk bicycle thief.

Reed loses a case against a young car thief in juvenile court, who later dies in high-speed pursuit. A girl's boyfriend dies from a heroin "hot shot", she buys drugs from the supplier and provides the serial number of the $10 bill she used to buy them. An elderly woman insists on being arrested rather than ticketed for a traffic violation.

Malloy needs to sell two tickets to the ballet after his date cancels, but he quickly regrets putting a notice on the station's bulletin board. While patrolling the harbor and surrounding area, he and Reed investigate a marine fuel dealer accused of forgery, pull over a driver with a suspicious box on the roof of his car, question a suspicious young couple, deal with an astrologer who is driving recklessly and encounter a drunken cook shooting a rifle from the crow's nest of a docked ship.

Malloy returns from vacation sporting a mustache, prompting chuckles and guffaws from the squad. The officers then assist Air Ten in rescuing two people from an airplane crash. Reno West, a paroled thief, is suspected in the theft of some stamps from a mansion. A witness provides excellent descriptions of suspects involved in a jewelry store robbery. And a woman takes an alleged purse snatcher to the police station in her car rather than walk four miles to do so. Malloy shaves off the mustache when he has trouble trimming it.

There's a new dispatcher on today's day watch, and while Reed can't stand her voice, Malloy sees the situation much differently. On patrol, they search for a hit and run driver who left a small girl in serious condition, investigate a break-in at a synagogue, deal with a drunk woman who is searching for her daughter and become part of a SWAT team attempting to neutralize a sniper terrorizing the movie studio from which he was just fired.

Reed needs his TV repaired, and brings in his Boy Scout neighbor with a merit badge in electronics to work on it. Cases involve pursuing a juvenile on a souped-up minibike, a woman suspected of killing and burying her husband in the back yard, a robbery committed by a long haired woman in high heels, a picket line at a store resolved when the lead picketer found out she went on a "computer date" with the store manager and he lied about his occupation, and a report made on a robbery turned out to be made by the actual robbers.

Malloy and Officer Woods return from a day of fishing smelling like fish...which is aggravated when a disoriented woman spills perfume in the back seat. Numerous trips to the police garage fail to get the smells out. Other incidents include a mute woman informing the officers someone had broken into a church, a kidnapping call that turns out to be a man picking up a drunk woman to take her home, and a boy whose bike was stolen by a big boy and was recovered when the boy's friends caught and held the big boy until the police arrived.

While on a quiet patrol, Reed decides to spend part of his lunch break doing business at his bank while Malloy waits in the patrol car. Unfortunately, he walks into the clutches of a pair of ruthless robbers who take him hostage.

Reed is suffering from a wrist injury which puts him on desk duty, while Malloy has to break in a new rookie partner. Reed's day is far from routine as he has to handle a bomb threat that results in the evacuation of the station, Officer Brinkman accidentally discharges his shotgun twice, a young man wants to report misconduct by a police officer, an elderly man brings a shotgun into the station to drop off, Malloy brings in a group of children abandoned by their mother, and Malloy and his partner pursue a car into the police parking lot, where the suspects are arrested.

Reed returns from an off-day with an uncomfortable full-body sunburn, which causes him problems throughout the watch. Calls include responding to a traffic accident, acting on a tip from an informant, busting a drug dealer working out of abandoned homes, searching for a robbery suspect based on a vehicle description, and assisting in the rescue of two boys when their boat capsizes.

Malloy and Reed are chosen to ride in Air-70 to observe how the LAPD's air patrol works. The chopper's cases include searching for two robbery suspects inside a high-rise building and tracking an escaping murder suspect.

Malloy and Reed take to separate helicopter units to continue their observations. The choppers assist in a stolen light plane from LAX by a distraught man, track two robbery suspects fleeing in separate cars, and assist in a nighttime house fire.

A young boy, Greg Whitney, is arrested for a burglary attempt and is released to his mother's custody. However, it is later determined that Whitney had a record under another name and the man he was with was posing to be his father. After Whitney is arrested for fleeing a robbery he actually did not commit, Malloy takes him to a special police-sponsored camp for troubled youth. Other cases include an attempted robbery of a taxicab, and an accident involving an elderly man and a long-haired motorcycle rider.

Malloy goes to camp with Greg Whitney and a group of other boys, and due to his short height is told to bunk with the younger boys. Greg gets into trouble right away, accused of stealing ice cream and a watch from one of the other boys, but runs off before it was determined the watch was misplaced, and is found. Olympic gold-medalist pole vaulter Bob Seagren stops by to coach the boys on a cross-country race, which Greg wins, while Reed speaks with his mother about handling Greg in the future. Back on patrol, Reed and Officer Wells deal with a woman whose alleged attacker fainted when he discovered she had a python under her coat.

A serial rapist is on the loose. Malloy and Reed team up with Sgt. Gloria Tyler to teach self-defense techniques to a group of girls at a school near where the attacks have been occurring. Later, Tyler is used as bait to lure the rapist out, and he is captured after a pursuit. Other incidents include a home burglary involving a man whom the officers know and his nephew, and a shoplifter in a rain coat who escapes into a bar where he tries to be a stand-up comic.

While paying a visit to the laundromat before going into work, Malloy encounters a man using the facilities to dry something much different from clothing. On patrol, he and Reed deal with a minister-in-training who uses a very unorthodox method to get his message across, try to reunite a Finnish-speaking child with her family, mediate a strange dispute between feuding neighbors and engage in a high-speed chase with a well known drug dealer.

Officer Woods' new partner is a nervous and quiet recruit, and the embarrassing secret he's trying to keep from his fellow officers might actually imperil them. On today's patrol, a real estate broker's well meaning but poorly thought out gesture nearly leads to a mob scene, a drug store owner discovers a way to profit from armed robbers and an armed robbery suspect opens fire during his escape attempt.

Malloy and Reed are on the lookout for a traveling business man driving a green pinto, who called his wife in Nebraska and told her he was going to commit suicide at 2 PM. Meanwhile, they search for a woman who abandoned her newborn baby in a garbage can, and get a tip from an elderly woman about a group of car strippers.

Malloy is kidnapped leaving the station by a drug runner and his female accomplice, demanding her boyfriend be released from jail in exchange for Malloy. When the couple has Malloy contact the station to confirm his status, he reveals a clue about where they found a girl with a mannequin (a reference to the episode "Citizen With Gun"). Reed finds Malloy's car and a citizen gives a description of Malloy's kidnappers and their car, which Reed finds abandoned but he locates their hideout from case files, meanwhile Malloy manages to spill gasoline and ignites it, allowing Malloy to be rescued by Reed who notices the gunfire and smoke.

Malloy is filling in for Sgt. MacDonald as Watch Commander, so Reed rides with a new partner, Gus Corbin, an officer with nine months on the job, and they begin watch with a purse snatcher found inside a church confessional, then a break-in at a pharmacy leads to the real intention of the thieves—the next door pawn shop. Corbin defies Malloy's direct order not to search the pawn shop until backup arrives, which results in a dressing down by the acting Watch Commander, and the two suspects are captured. Finally, Corbin loses his gun during a foot pursuit and captures the suspect despite being unarmed.