With the public defenders going on strike, the precinct has to exercise caution in pursuing arrests, as the courts are going to be jammed until the strike is over, and the holding cells will be full. The Best Defense was written by Steve Bello and Robert Ward from a story by Bello, Ward and Jonathan Lemkin and it first aired on 16 October, 1986.

The fallout of Hunter’s (James Sikking) continues as he gets demoted for his actions (his gun load and the gun itself were not department authorized), and ends up taking over the roll call while Jablonski (Robert Prosky) accepts voluntary retirement and is in the hospital for an operation.

Everyone is assigned foot patrol and Tina Russo (Megan Gallagher) is in the precinct and paired with another new officer, Flaherty (Robert Clohessy) and they join Lucy (Betty Thomas) on patrol to learn the area and the expectations while the PDs are on strike.

Apparently, there’s some static between Flaherty and Buntz (Dennis Franz) which will no doubt be explored.

Belker (Bruce Weitz) is working on busting a murderer and is going through a guy who fences stolen welfare checks, which ties in with the case he was working on last week.

The debate with the public defenders and the city council continues. And it’s not going to be an easy day for anyone.

Everything has been played smart and straight so far this season, the goofy melodrama has faded. There’s still some fun character stuff, but the silliness seems to have been toned down nicely.

Bald Ambition sees the strike over, and Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) finds himself helping Calletano (Rene Enriquez) who is having problems in his own precinct but is too proud to ask for help. There is lots of talk about racism and issues and Calletano feels like Furillo has ambushed him with this, but Calletano’s precinct has lots of problems, and he’s the biggest of the bunch. Can he straighten it out? Not in this episode, because it will all explode by the end of the fifth act when there’s an officer-involved shooting.

Written by Jeffrey Lewis, this episode first aired on 20 October, 1986.

There’s a great opening with Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Micheal Warren) that sees Hill saving a baby that is literally tossed out of a window!

Russo is working undercover on a case that puts her in harm’s way as she pursues Sonny Cappellito (Chazz Palminteri). Following the arrest, his lawyer makes the argument that the case will be dismissed because Sonny contends that Russo slept with him. And she may have, which jeopardizes the whole case and brings into question the ethics of how and why she was assigned to the case.

Hunter is settling into his position of roll call and desk sergeant and Goldblume (Joe Spano) catches up with an old friend and is envious that he’s still writing while Goldblume has given it up. But his writer friend has problems of his own.

Buntz and Sid (Peter Jurassik) are having problems with one of the cases Buntz is working on, and Davenport (Veronica Hamel) is going back to work, and has also sent Furillo’s suits to the cleaners. All of his suits.

Cue melodrama: The cleaners burns down.

That’s it until next week, so let’s be careful out there.