Malloy and Reed learn of a serial home burglar stealing color TVs. They stumble upon the suspect's car with unusual results. Also, Reed must come to terms with his anger over a drug using mother that endangered her children to score dope.

Officers Malloy and Reed are involved in a high speed chase, a murder case and a family dispute as they work the P.M. watch. Reed worries all evening that the small dent in the fender he caused while backing the car up for fuel might lead to termination, since he is still on probation.

Officers Malloy and Reed assist a young mother whose baby is threatened by a deranged man and they help a woman being harassed by a spiteful neighbor.

After roll call, Reed and Malloy provide backup at a robbery, help a lost man return home, handle a call about a prowler, then respond to a silent alarm. Malloy demonstrates for Reed the importance of "officer presence".

Reed volunteers to line up entertainment for the department party, just as Malloy needs to serve a subpoena on a famous singer. The team learns of a drug den from their informant and are handed the bust when detectives are too busy to look into it.

Reed and Malloy assist park rangers in catching a horse thief, a homesick Texan who was high on drugs at the time. The officers then chase two gunmen in a high speed pursuit.

It's been a long night of patrol for Malloy and Reed. Just as the two tired officers are headed to the station to turn in for the night, shots are fired at the patrol car. In the blink of an eye, Reed kills whom he believes was the gunman. Back at the station, Reed undergoes a night of intensive questioning from the captain and lieutenant, as part of the superior officers' investigation into the incident. In the end, the captain confides in Reed that his story is credible and the rookie officer will likely be allowed back on patrol upon the completion of the investigation.

Reed and Malloy make a routine traffic stop on a motorist. Before the NCIC check is completed, the dispatcher broadcasts a domestic dispute call in the two officers' patrol area; Reed and Malloy take the call and let the motorist go. Bad choice; the lieutenant soon calls the two errant officers in to scold them. Turns out the motorist had warrants out for his arrest on robbery and weapons charges. Malloy and Reed then come up with and carry out an ultimately successful plan to nab the wanted criminal.

While Malloy is attending college, radicals learn he is a cop. They reject him and antagonize him on the job. After helping arrest demonstrators, his new car is vandalized. When a timer is found missing, he locates and disarms a bomb using it.

Malloy and Reed see a man passed out in an alley and stop to lend assistance, deliver bad news to a young wife, apprehend a mentally ill man who then becomes uncontrollably violent in their patrol car, and respond to a robbery that needlessly becomes a tragedy. All along the way the officers have their every move second guessed by a pair of young, unethical freelance journalists who are determined to document police brutality.

An older husband complains about his wife and friend's noisy karate practice. A hit and run traffic accident looks looks like a homicide. The officers use their investigative skills to locate the suspect and arrest him.

Malloy and Reed hope to find an impostor as they investigate a boxing promoter's accusation that a police detective stole $350 from him. In the meantime, they deal with a disgruntled wife who is in the process of destroying her own car in the middle of a downtown street, investigate a gun theft from a pawn shop, drive up on a home burglary in progress and obtain critical information while interrogating a suspected car thief.

Malloy and Reed prove they cannot and will not be bribed, no matter how good the offer, resulting in desperation from a young man charged with his third drunk driving offense. An elderly man admits mercy killing his wife.