When burglar Brad Gifford is arrested, his cop-hating, now orphaned son, Jody, is taken to Lambert Hall where he is befriended by Ryker, a former orphan himself. Jody is just beginning to trust and like Ryker when his father, aided by Augie Baker and P.G. Larkan, escapes custody and comes for him. Ryker is taken hostage. The group is traced down by Mike and Terry. In the resulting shootout, Augie is killed, P.G. arrested, and Brad Gifford is mortally wounded. Jody is taken back to the home where he is given foster parents, and a new life.

After the tragic death of a bright high school student, the rookies put in a team effort to get the pushers off the school campus. They get some help from a pusher who is pretending to scorch for the source.

Mike is critically injured when he tries to capture the leader of a militant group and Terry is taken hostage.

An unidentified nine-year-old girl is accidentally hit by a car after two hedonistic ""swinging single"" men spike her lunch with narcotics. Before she dies, she begs Terry for help. Terry, reluctant to let her die a Jane Doe, investigates.

Jill is working in a womens prison, fighting an outbreak of diphtheria. In order to protest for better food and working conditions, inmates take Jill Danko and Dr. Malcolm hostage.

Young crooks Pat Stevens and Glen Barton rob ticket agent Brewster and shoot rookie Chris. The scene is witnessed by mailman Charlie Brooks, who is adamant about not getting involved. Eventually his wife, Nadine, and daughter, Stacy, encourage him to cooperate with the rookies, and finally, the criminals are apprehended.

A female officer is blamed for her partner's death during a jewelry store robbery. With her new partner, Mike, she sets out to solve the crime and prove her worth to the police department.

The rookies must investigate a robbery at Memorial Hospital. The blood bank was robbed and its contents sold to the black market, leaving an infant at the hospital on the critical list.

Chris' sister makes a surprise visit on her brother. He is suspended after conducting an unauthorized bust of the man who molested her.

An ex-convict, out on parole, desperately wants to go straight, but is sought after by his ex-cellmates to use his safe-cracking abilities in a robbery.

Terry is run down by a car driven by the leader of a street gang in his old neighborhood. When one of the members of the gang is overheard calling for an ambulance, he is forced to kill Terry or he will be killed by the gang for betrayal.

A rookie accidentally overpowers a professional assassin and is named ""hero"". The assassin vows to kill the rookie and escapes with Jill as a hostage, offering to exchange her for the rookie.

Chris and Terry have their patrol car stolen by teenage vandals while investigating a major robbery in a department store and three heavily armed killers trap them there.

The rookies stake out an abandoned factory where a heroin deal is about to take place, and are able to seize the drugs and arrest all but one man. This man must get the heroin back from the police.

Forest, a tough career cop, takes $10,000 from the scene of a robbery after his partner is killed by the robbers. Lt. Ryker puts an undercover investigator on the case to retrieve the money.

A man who was forced to spend eighteen years in prison for a crime he did not commit is determined to get the men who framed him.

Mike, a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam, becomes the prey of a deranged ex-POW who blames the policeman for his capture by the Vietcong.

Terry vows to find the murderer of Dan Kennedy, a retired cop turned security guard. Dan was the father of a blind girl, Terry's former girlfriend.

After a woman is fatally assaulted by three junkies, her son, a doctor in the same hospital where Jill works, announces his intention to get revenge against the three, who were released from jail on a technicality.

The rookies are given undercover assignments in order to smash a syndicate-owned porno film company responsible for the deaths of some of its actors.

A frightened sixteen-year-old boy is forced to take the blame for the crimes of a junkie he has become mixed up with. The two had committed a burglary and escaped after killing a cop. The boy is Terry's current girlfriend's brother.

A gambler kills his creditor and is witnessed by Jill Danko whom he and his accomplice must now do away with. Another episode dedicated to nurse Jill Danko. In this episode Jill bears a big resemblance to her later character Sabrina Duncan.