With a crime-wave sweeping the city, a new Police programme has been formed to fast-track recruits to get them patrolling on the streets, and it's up to tough veteran cop Sergeant T.J. Hooker to bring them up to scratch. Trying to cope with his recent divorce and money problems, Hooker struggles with a job that he can't get away from. Meanwhile, the spate of crimes, including robbery, murder and a sniper is quickly getting out of hand. Only Hooker can train the eager but inexperienced young recruits as he leads them in bringing peace back to the streets, but the pursuit of the two murderous armed robbers at the head of the crime-wave inevitably leads to an explosive confrontation...

When a highly-trained sniper takes out a patrol car's front tyre, sending it crashing off the highway, the tactics used suggest to Hooker and Romano that the attacker is an ex-Vietnam war veteran gone bad, who has made the hit as practice for a bigger strike. But the culprit is closer to home than they expect, and is planning to turn an upcoming visit by the Mayor to the LCPD headquarters into a nightmare, with his own little war-zone...

An ex-prostitute is trying to convince a young girl new on the game to give it up, when the pair unwittingly stumble onto a mobster's back-street deal, who with his henchman, goes after the girls to make sure they don't talk and leaves one of the girls dead. As Hooker and Romano investigate, they find themselves uncovering a web of corruption involving city officials...

On Stacy's first week of field training, Hooker assigns her to be partnered with tough veteran officer Jim Corrigan, who has low opinion of female cops after his former parter was killed while partnered with one. Meanwhile, Hooker has a personal concern in catching the culprits of a series of violent mini-mart robberies in a factory district, when his ex-wife Fran is badly wounded in a hold-up and is in danger of being left blind as a result...