In an episode where Reed learns to keep his wits under control, the officers deal with a loud noise complaint where an elderly woman refuses to answer, much less acknowledge, a teenaged girl's desperate pleas for help after the woman learns she was at a house where loud party music is being played, and it leads to a tragic drowning of a 4-year-old girl in a backyard swimming pool. Other calls include a brawl at a pop-spirituality temple on the verge of a schism over meditation styles, and a misused silent alarm at a liquor store.

A "child-left-alone" call turns up a horrifying case of child neglect. A 6-year-old girl is left home with her baby brother and both parents are unable to provide for their children.

Malloy and Reed begin their shift responding to a disgruntled tenant who is holding his landlord at knife point. Later, they investigate a rash of property theft from multiple homes in a quiet neighborhood, stake out an apparent bag of laundry left on the side of the road and search for a runaway boy who gets himself into a life-threatening situation.

Malloy and Reed see the same drunk twice in one night, respond to a bar fight and engage in a high-speed pursuit with good samaritans who make a bad decision. They also search for a biker who tries to coerce a woman to repay a debt by riddling her apartment with buckshot.

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 spends a weekend afternoon attending a barbecue at Reed's home, where Reed lets him hold his newborn son for the first time and tries to set him up with his wife's friend. However, their relaxation is interrupted when they have to deal with a young neighbor who overdoses on drugs and becomes the target of his dealer.

Malloy and Reed search for a suspect who frames an employee of a manufacturing plant for theft and then plants a powerful bomb on the premises. They also apprehend two criminals after questioning a suspicious man who is carrying heavy bags down the street, and protect an innocent motorist from a street race that still ends in tragedy.

Malloy and Reed track down a kooky female shoplifter involved in a cult-type relationship with a ego-maniacal spiritualist weirdo. Malloy gets help tracking her down from an old girlfriend.

The shift starts with Reed being taken hostage by a woman out of her mind. Malloy and Reed are faced with multiple reports of burglaries and the thieves appear to be young boys. After a couple interviews, Malloy picks up on the fact that the victims are all supposed to be playing bridge and it points to one family.

Malloy and reed hunt down a suspect who has been bombing downtown storefronts. Then they report to a scuffle between two native americans at a bar that the bartender thinks may be a prelude to something a lot more serious.

Malloy has to shoot one of two robbery suspects, then the officers counsel a young woman in a bad neighborhood not to hang around (she is later kidnapped by two men claiming to fix her car), the LAPD's Air-Ten helicopter is used to catch the kidnappers (who already had outstanding kidnapping warrants), find a "mover" (burglar) whose partner hides in a freezer, and the officers visit an apartment on a domestic dispute complaint and find another woman with severe injuries but the couple insists nothing is going on, later arresting the husband on domestic violence charges after the woman's mother calls the police back to the apartment after the woman's husband beats their daughter.

Malloy and Reed investigate an extortion racket against a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors, with the owner of a dry cleaners willing to testify but others not out of fear of retribution. The officers return to handle the owner's panel truck being set ablaze and later the owner is physically assaulted. Malloy and Reed capture both suspects. Other incidents involved a robbery at a bar (the perps escaped initially, but are later captured after a shootout), and a drunk man owed back pay by a dockmaster threatens to dump his boat onto dry land from a crane unless he's paid.

Malloy and Reed arrest a seemingly less-fortunate woman for shoplifting items for her baby, but she escapes from custody during a disruption at the station; the officers later learn the woman and her husband actually stole the baby, as they could not have one of their own. After finding the woman at a landlord-tenant dispute, they learn the woman's husband stole his car, and that the manager supposedly made an extortion call demanding $2,000 for the baby. The officers pursue and eventually catch the husband at a rail yard. Another call results in Reed briefly being held at gunpoint by a burglary suspect; Reed manages to trick the suspect and signal Malloy for help.

Malloy and Reed have to break the news to a young model that her press agent lied when he said there would be nothing wrong with having a nude photo shoot on a busy public beach. Later, they discover a man stealing from a phone booth, assist in the chase of a stolen dune buggy, try help an attractive woman whose safety is put in grave danger by an obscene phone caller, deal with a wino who dies while eating at a diner and pull over a woman towing a large jack-o-lantern.