Carver is still getting used to life at Sun Hill, as he continues to raise his popularity level amongst the other officers. Meanwhile, Brownlow has ordered the uniform relief onto the streets of Sun Hill, to lower the increase of crime in the area. Carver attempts to get into Brownlow's good books by capturing a car thief. Meanwhile, Galloway is desperate to get some results on a breaking and entering spree. When flying squad detective Frank "Tommy" Burnside arrives asking Galloway for help, after one of his snouts is arrested, it soon becomes clear that there's history between him and Cryer.

P.C. Litten recognises a photo of a wanted armed robber, but takes the information to D.I. Galloway instead of Sgt. Cryer, and gets into trouble with both men. Meanwhile, a gang of thugs is robbing local shopkeepers, and P.C. Edwards purses a mugger into a derelict building and is trapped when the floor collapses beneath him.

Amidst renovation chaos at Sun Hill, a new P.C., Abe Lyttleton, arrives a day early. He is Sun Hill's first black police officer, and although he is friendly and popular, his arrival is not appreciated by bigoted cop P.C. Pete Muswell. D.C. Dashwood recognises a man who has brought in his papers for a car (licence, M.O.T. form and insurance). He is using a false name and address. During electrical repairs, the personal radios are out of action and as a result, a CID operation is blown.

Sgts. Peters and Penny apprehend a man standing outside the station waiting to attack P.C. Muswell (who had left the force six months previously). P.C. Jim Carver begins his CID training by working on an all night obbo with D.S. Ted Roach. Due to Carver's inexperience and Roach's lax attitude, they both miss a flatbed trailer stealing a digger from a building site. Roach and Carver follow up their suspiscions about the site security guard, and find he has stolen the equipment. Back at Sun Hill, D.I. Roy Galloway is being investigated by the Home Office for allegedly forcing a confession from a murder suspect under duress at his last posting. Galloway is cleared of wrongdoing due to lack of evidence, but Ch. Supt. Brownlow warns him that his old-school policing methods may be his undoing. In a suprising turn of events, one of P.C. Reg Hollis's rare walks on the beat with W.P.C. June Ackland leads to him apprehending an armed gunman single-handedly from the Sun Hill D.H.S.S. office. W.P.

Recently promoted to CID, D.C. Carver is feeling seasick while he and D.S. Roach work on a case on the police launch. The River Police fish the body of a murdered informant out of the Thames, but Roach is furious when the case is taken over by two detectives from Scotland Yard. P.C. Taffy Edwards and Stamp attend an incident with an unconcious elderly man who has a very protective dog. A woman offers to help, but Stamp tells her to move along. Stamp is horrified when the woman arrives at Sun Hill as the new uniformed Inspector, Christine Frazer. P.C. Hollis is running a sweep on who D.I. Galloway's replacement will be - there are rumours it will be D.I. Burnside. At the hospital, a solid gold krugerand is found on the old man, and W.P.C. Ackland and D.C. Carver realise the body in the river is the old man's nephew, who was grassing on his accomplices in a krugerand robbery. Sgt. Penny is back at work on light duties, but he is clearly still deeply affected by his recent shooting.

D.S. Ted Roach and D.C. Mike Dashwood are on the trail of armed robbers who have taken a women hostage. Sgt. Penny is starting to stress out because of the guns involved, and his collegues are concerned about his reaction. Two D.C.s from Somerset arrive to take a prisoner back. P.C. Yorkie Smith and W.P.C. June Ackland chase the robbers with three members of T.S.G. in the back. After being shot at by the robber and nearly shot by one of the T.S.G. officers, Yorkie punches the officer on the nose.

Ch. Insp. Conway briefs the relief on a massive raid about to take place on Frontline, a gang of football thugs. Two police officers are undercover in the gang, and the relief are warned not to show them any signs of recognition, however Acting D.I. Roach and D.C. Carver are stunned when they see D.I. Frank Burnside in handcuffs, blowing his cover. Roach headbutts a suspect who spat at him. The suspect gives his name in custody as ""Get Stuffed"", and Burnside, who has arrived to take over Sun Hill CID, gives him a slap for his insolence. With no love lost between Sgt. Cryer and Burnside, Cryer threatens to report Burnside if he raises Roach's assault of the same prisoner, but Burnside shocks them all when he reveals that the unfortunate prisoner is the other undercover officer in the gang. Burnside catches up with his old flame, Insp. Frazer who later has a word with Cryer for spreading rumours that Burnside is corrupt. A chastised Cryer swallows his pride and apologises.

Sgt. Cryer introduces two special constables who will be joining the relief: Mary Kilnair and Brian Defoe. While on patrol with P.C. Edwards, Kilnair is pricked by a junkie's needle, there is grave concern she may have been infected. A man arrives at the station to confess to the murder of his wife - thirty years previously. D.C. Carver, and new D.C. Tosh Lines, investigate. A lawyer meets with the station top brass (Brownlow, Conway and Frazer) to discuss her client's claim of being stopped and searched thirteen times in two weeks. Lines recognises the M.O. from his last nick - several black men giving the same name and address whenever they are stopped by police. D.S. Roach asks Insp. Frazer out on a date, but Burnside finds out and makes fun of him.

W.P.C. Martella and P.C. Stamp take an American woman who has been caught shoplifting into custody. She is very insistent that the police contact her husband who is staying in a hotel. The husband, meanwhile, is reporting the theft of his briefcase from their hotel room. D.I. Burnside is warned off the case by a Special Branch officer and a C.I.A. agent, who are waiting for the man to sell top-secret papers. D.S. Roach is having money troubles, but when one of his snouts offers to sell him the secret documents, Roach and Burnside use the situation to clear up Roach's debt problem. Roach is furious when Burnside double-crosses his snout and the papers are returned to the Americans.

P.C. Edwards and W.P.C. Morgan find the naked body of a young woman who appears to have gassed herself to death, but they notice the neighbour who reported the death wiping something from the dead girl's mouth. D.C. Carver can't believe D.C. Lines has been a D.C. for twelve years. Lines isn't convinced the girl's death was a suicide, and impresses Carver with his detective skills when he solves the case - the neighbour, Kelly, has knocked her out with chloroform, raped her, and then turned on the gas. Kelly finally admits it, but Tosh is upset when he won't admit why. D.C. Dashwood is furious when D.S. Roach stands him up on an obbo to have dinner with Insp. Christine Frazer.

D.S. Roach and D.C. Dashwood investigate stolen electrical goods. D.I. Burnside talks to Dashwood about interviewing a suspect in the back of a police car. P.C. Quinnan notices a man acting suspiciously in the market. He has stolen a charity jar from a pub. Ch. Supt. Brownlow is meeting with Ch. Insp. Conway and Insp. Monroe and tells them that the station is due a visit from the Inspectorate.

Meadows blames a leak when a witness is threatened. Stamp and Boyden come under suspicion.

Don Beech turns up in Sydney, Australia, and almost immediately hooks up with Frankie Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Australian woman with contacts in Sydney's criminal underworld. Together, she and Beech engage in a ruthless crime spree and are soon wanted by the New South Wales Police, the Australian Federal Police, a rival Vietnamese gang and a ruthless and determined DI Claire Stanton, who has arrived to arrest Beech and extradite him to Britain for the murder of DS Boulton six months earlier. The chase comes to a head at a Sydney dock, and as Beech tries to make a getaway in his new boat, Stanton fires a shotgun after him, blowing up the boat and leaving Beech missing, presumed dead.