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.

Officer Reed learns that a professional officer has to keep their emotions under control; even when confronted with an abusive drunk-driver, right after clearing an "officer down" call & finding his close friend from the Academy critically wounded.

Officers Malloy and Reed look for a robbery suspect, help a woman pinned under her crashed car and settle a family dispute, among other duties.

A ditzy young woman reports her 1958 Ford convertible stolen while she went into a liquor store. She left the keys in the car, has no paperwork, doesn't know the license number or other details but she needs it by 6 PM for a date. She finally tells the officers that her eight-foot boa constrictor is in the trunk as she was coming from the vet.

On Christmas eve Reed and Malloy make rounds distributing police department donation packages to needy families, and pull many heartstrings.

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.

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.

A couple of neighbors co-own a boat and continually fight over it so Malloy and Reed do their best to mediate this latest rift.

Reed hears a joke from Ed Wells before roll call, and then spends the shift retelling it to Malloy. The partners solve a mystery for a little old lady. Later, Reed needs to break up a noisy party hosted by an old school chum.

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.

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.