The Blue Knight

A trigger happy cop charges into a stakeout set up by an informant and forces Bumper Morgan into an all-out battle. Stolen whiskey, an arrogant coworker and a handgun shipment provide Bumper (George Kennedy) with a barrage of problems.

The Blue Knight begins as an interesting character study of a derelict wino and his inadvertent involvement in a murder. Guest star Douglas V. Fowley portrays an innocent old derelict accused of the murder of a former policeman.

Bumper stirs up trouble among the hoodlums and hookers of his beat when he tries to steer a young girl into a safer life, while, off the job, he dates a glamorous career woman (played by Barbara Rhoades), whose world is very different from his.

During a drug bust, an over-eager young cop shoots and kills a suspect, then hints Bumper was afraid to fire, and the story badly affects Bumper's relationship with his fellow officers.

A retired cop is heavily in debt to a bookmaker Bumper has doggedly tried to shut down.

Defying Bumper's warning about taking the law into his own hands, a vigilante goes after a band of hoodlum-robbers who raped his daughter.

Bumper investigates the shooting death of a Chinese gang leader.

Bumper goes back to the Police Academy to take a course designed to update veterans in modern techniques. An ex-con has a job, but an informer says he is in on plans for a big robbery.

Bumper is relieved from duty while officials investigate his fatal shooting of a hood.

Bumper tells down-and-out bum Joey to stop disturbing the police when he keeps confessing that he's the one responsible for raping and murdering four women. But when Joey begins to give details which only the cops and the murderer know, Bumper realises that Joey has become the sounding-board for a maniac.