Brooklyn bad boy Rico Amonte was sliding into a life of crime. Then his policeman brother caught him in the act ‚ and hauled him off to Southern California to get him on the straight and narrow. Two years later, Rico is a graduate of the Los Angeles Sheriff's academy ‚ a Deputy Sheriff trainee about to hit the streets in uniform, and with a gun and a badge.

New York's streets were dangerous, but nothing has prepared Rico from the hazing he gets from his own department. His training officer, John Henry Barnes, is the meanest, toughest veteran on the force and is determined to hammer Rico into a by-the-book officer of the law -- or break him in the process.

Rico's sheriff's training gets into full swing as he and Barnes handle a melee of calls around the city of Los Angeles, from rescuing a little girl who got stuck in a refrigerator to helping a woman whose mother thinks she's possessed. Meanwhile Williams gets assigned a tough new T.O., and Jablonski is given a new trainee after his first one quit. And, in order to join the department's boxing team, Rico has to first fight Jablonski.