Brooklyn South

At the 74th Precinct in South Brooklyn, a typical day begins with a sudden bloodbath when a deranged gunman opens fire on policeman and random civilians outside the station, killing and wounded several before being wounded and taken into custody where he dies from his wounds. Because of the nature and race-related killings (the shooter, Dashawn Hopkins, is black and all the victims were white) prompts the killer's civil activist/black racist sister, Mavis, to team up with a local fanatic civil rights preacher, Basil Matheson, to insist that an investigation be launched to find out who "murdered" Hopkins. Patrol Sergeant Francis Donovan, tries to keep the situation together while consulting Officer Ann-Marie Kersey who's detective boyfriend was one of the victims. Unknown to everyone, Donovan is revealed to be an informant for the hated Internal Affairs Bureau over some past issues involving his father. Meanwhile, the new transfer, Officer Phil Roussakoff, is partnered with the good-natured Officer Jimmy Doyle to located a second shooter who intervened during the shootout. At the same time, Doyle, who lives with his younger sister Kathleen and brother Terry, is overjoyed with Terry announces that he's joining the police academy to follow in his brother's and late father's footsteps. Kevin Patrick, another officer who was shot in the back during the opening shootout, is comforted by Jimmy Doyle at the hospital when it appears that he might end up paralyzed below the waste. Elsewhere, the hot-tempered veteran Officer Jake Lowery deals with his difficult job and his troubled home life involving his contemptuous, highly strung-out wife Yvonne. Tough-as-nails Officer Nona Valentine is also affected by events as well as her former boyfriend, traffic cop Clement Johnson, while rookie newcomer Hector Villaneuva is assisted by Donovan during his first week on the job.

The repercussions of Hopkins' death in the station continue as Internal Affairs investigates when a dubious witness comes forward who claims that he saw the wounded Hopkins being beaten while in police custody. While both Donovan and Santoro deal with the wary Captain Sorella, who does not want bad publicity because of the incident, Hopkins' black racist sister and conspiracy theorist, Mavis, brings in her own lawyer, the fanatic Wendell Ford, to find out who "murdered" her brother. Lt. Stan Jonas from the hated Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) arrives again at the 74th Precinct to interview all the participants of the gun battle where Officer Nona Valentine thinks she incriminated her hot-headed partner, Officer Jack Lowery, over a slip she made about him slapping Hopkins. Lowery continues dealing with his needy and selfish wife, Yvonne, who tries to persuade him to give her more spending money. Sgt. Donovan is wary about Jonas presence because Jonas happens to be Donovan's secret contact and handler since being an informant for IAB. Meanwhile, Doyle and Roussakoff try to help out a young boy who is working on the streets as a drug runner. Also, Anne-Marie Kersey and Donovan investigate the death of an elderly woman who was smothered in her sofa bed.

When a Hasidic Jew and his granddaughter are mugged, a militant Hasidic Rabbi, named Aaron Geller, organizes a vigilante group to find and punish the assailant, believing the police cannot be counted on to find the culprit. But when granddaughter points out the wrong suspect, and he turns out to be innocent, Santoro, Donovan and the rest of the squad deal with the backlash from the Hasidic community. Doyle and Roussakoff investigate a family dispute between the O'Donnells and the Westbrooks over property rights. Meanwhile, Lt. Jonas interrogates Lowry over the death of Hopkins in custody where Jonas orders Donovan to go along with him to obtain incriminating evidence against Lowry. Also, Santoro deals with his personal home life when his nine-year-old son, Charlie, gets into trouble at his elementary school for mouthing off to his stern teacher. Roussakoff asks Doyle for advice when he plans to go on a date with Kathleen, while Kersey goes on a date with Donovan. Here, the county coroner, Dr. Vanderluke, confides in Kersey about a find he never entered into evidence about the Hopkins death, which leads to a guilt-ridden Kersey confiding in Donovan about something terrible she did to Hopkins on that day.

Doyle and Roussakoff are once again called to the home of the O'Donnell's when their father is found murdered. The eldest son, Kevin, thinks he was killed by one of the Westbrook boys, their next door neighbors and constant adversaries. Meanwhile, Lowery has to go to a grand jury over his alleged participation in Hopkins' death and has to wait to see whether he still has a career or not. Having confided in Donovan that she was the one who murdered Hopkins by kicking him to death as he lay fatally wounded on the roll-call room floor, Kersey wants to confess to the incident. But Donovan refuses to let her come forward on speculation for he's confident that Lowery will be cleared of all the charges. But Lowry's wife, Yvonne, thinks otherwise and plots to leave him should he be indicted by the grand jury. Also, Donovan deals with his very first partner, the elderly officer Gus Steiger, who finds his mental faculties slowly leaving him during his court testimony on a separate murder investigation.

Santoro deals with a woman comes into the station to report that she is being harassed by a group of clowns living next door to her and have been participating in illegal sex acts. Soon, the whole precinct becomes a freak show as Hector and Clem haul the clowns in the holding cells to decide what to do with them. Meanwhile, Lowery and Nona help out a disabled man who was beaten up and robbed in his own apartment, and help him recover his precious stamp collection. Lowery continues to deal with life without Yvonne as well as dealing with his acquittal by the grand jury over the Hopkins incident, while Donovan and Kersey continue to spend more time together on and off the job, and Roussakoff asks Doyle's permission to take Kathleen out to dinner.

Santoro's brother-in-law is arrested for possession of stolen goods kept in a locker that has Santoro's name on the lease, which could cause problems for Santoro. While visiting an apartment on official business, Clem, Lowery, Doyle and Hector hear shots coming from the floor above and chase the perpetrators to the roof. One is killed, but the other gets away. They killed a black family because drugs were being dealt from their apartment. The view of the officers is that it was more than a random occurrence and that a recently paroled drug lord, Jerome McFee, was involved in some way. But the local fanatic Reverend Basil Matheson returns with the fanatic and black racist lawyer, Wendell Ford, where they put more pressure on Clem to find the killer, and then make the investigation their business to stir up more tension between the African American community and the police. Also, Roussakoff and Doyle investigate an abusive husband and decide to teach him a lesson about the results of domestic abuse. Elsewhere, Santoro and Donovan commence their plans to remove Captain Sorela as their boss by playing on his paranoia to make him think that he's under investigation which leads to the officious captain quiting as the station's chief.

Roussakoff and Hector arrest two gay men for brawling in the street outside a gay bar. Two of the precinct's beat cops, Heagan and Pittorino, are assigned to escort them to the station. But by the time they reach the station house, the gay mens injuries are much worse and one of them accuses the two officers who brought them in of police brutality. Roussakoff and Hector find themselves as witnesses to the event as Santoro tries to find out which party is telling the truth about the event. Meanwhile, Terry Doyle finds himself doing some driving, to earn some extra money, for a businessman. He informs his brother Jimmy, and then Lt. Jonas of Internal Affairs, of this when he discovers that the man, Paddy Flannagan, is a major criminal. Terry is asked to go undercover, even though he hasn't even finished at the academy yet. Lowery and Nona investigate a shop owner who claims that is he being harassed by an Arab hot dog vendor whom is stealing business from his store. Also, Jonas surprises everyone when he arrives at the station and announces that he's the new captain of the 74th Precinct.

Terry begins his undercover assignment to infiltrate Paddy Flannagan's Irish street gang and enjoys his new work in getting close to the gang's leader, Bobby Quinn, and his girlfriend and co-conspirator, Emily, whom is Flannagan's daughter. Santoro comes to the aid of Kevin Patrick (one of the officers shot during the Dashawn Hopkins shooting spree in the pilot episode) who is having trouble coming to terms with his disabling injury. After Patrick's wife, Noreen, expresses concern about his mental health, Santoro offers Patrick a desk job at the station. Captain Jonas sets up shop as he officially takes over as precinct commander and agrees to make it handicapped assessable for Patrick. Meanwhile, a badly wounded woman leads Valentine, Doyle, Lowry, and the other cops to a house with six dead bodies, all tied up with their throats cut. The investigation starts to find those who committed this crime. Valentine and Lowry try to find leads from a junkie, named Honeydew, while Doyle and Roussakoff see that the lead detective, Conroy, may have a drug problem himself, and Donovan ends up saving Kersey's life during the police bust of the suspects.

When the ex-wife of William 'Woody' McKenzie, the prosecutor who helped clear Jack from the Hopkins murder charges, is found dead in her Manhattan apartment, Woody becomes the main suspect. Looking for help he calls Donovan to help him. Although Donovan wants to believe in McKenzie's innocence, mounting circumstantial evidence surfaces that he may have hired a hit man to do the deed for him. Meanwhile, Terry gets deeper into his undercover role with the illegal actives with the Irish mob when he learns that Patty Flannigan along with Bobby, and Joe are setting up a deal with some street rappers to buy automatic weapons for a bank robbery. But Terry's problems multiply when he soon clashes with the leader, Joe, who holds a grudge against Terry's brother, Jimmy, who arrested him years before. Jimmy, worried about Terry, asks a street informant, named Darius, to keep an eye on Terry. Elsewhere, Kersey's guilt over beating and killing Hopkins and getting away with it continues to haunt her which puts a strain on Donovan for she may not be over her murdered fiancée. Also, Santoro leads Lowrey, Roussakoff, and the rest of the station to renovate itself to make it handicap accessible in preparation for Kevin Patrick's return to work in his wheelchair.

Terry's undercover work is beginning to worry Jimmy, as Joe's grudge against Terry intensifies. The gang's bank robbery finally goes down where Terry does his own investigation. But Joe begins to suspect that Terry cannot be trusted and feeds him false information that puts everyone's lives at risk. Meanwhile, Kevin Patrick comes back to work, trying to adjust to the fact that he is going to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair at a desk while the rest of his colleagues hit the streets. Also, Clemmet offers to spend some time with Nora to rekindle their romance.

Officer Heagan's disciplinary hearing over the gay beating takes place and Roussakoff has to testify against him. Even so with Officer Pittorino now changing his testimony, it looks like he could go free. Meanwhile, Officer Anthony Fiano shoots and kills an armed robber while in a gay bar. When he comes in, he is questioned by Detective Hayes and I.A.B. Lieutenant Gordon Denton (Donovan's new contact and handler) who seem determined to take Fiano down, or at least get him to admit that he is gay. Santoro investigates the robbery and learns the identity of Fiano and tries to get Donovan to help protect Fiano from the investigation. Doyle is teamed with the rookie Chrstine Bannon to nab a narcotics dealer and his suppliers. Also, Lowery becomes smitten with a foreign immigrant who was robbed by a purse snatcher.

Kersey and Lowery investigate an incident when a man exposed himself to a teenage girl near her school. The girl happens to be the daughter of George Hauer, a court officer and an old friend of Captain Jonas. But following the man's arrest, the traumatized teenage girl cannot positively identify the man. Without any evidence the man is freed, much to Hauer's disgust. Not long after this, Jonas is personally called to a crime scene where Hauer is found, with the dead body of the released suspect. Jonas tells Donovan, still secretly working for IAB as an informant, to keep track of the police department's findings. Meanwhile, Terry starts work in the anti-crime unit, partnering up with the attractive Christine Bannon, while he also starts a possible romance with Emily Flannagan off the job. Santoro fires Kevin Patrick for his rash and suicidal attempt to stop the bank robbery after his heroism ceremony. Also, Nona discovers a secret about Clem and his past while tracking the illegal activities of a Japanese street gang which brings them more romantically together, while Kersey and Donovan continue to be uncomfortable around each other over their now-ended affair.

Clem and Hector arrest a prostitute for possession of drugs after pulling her over in her car. Hector recognizes her as Willow Mortner, one of the clowns arrested previously (in episode 'Clown Without Pitty') and wants to help her, against Clem's advice. Willow wants to give up the name and address of her drug supplier for her freedom. No one is quite sure whether she is telling is the truth, but agree to look into it anyway. Meanwhile, Jimmy is reluctantly partnered with Officer Ray MacElwaine, a middle-aged widower and 24-year veteran of the force who just transferred in from another precinct, to investigate a number of robberies involving the theft of collection jars for a home for recovering alcoholics. Terry continues working with Christine Bannon to catch the 'Jarman'.

Lowery plans to marry Elena, the Russian woman he met a short time ago, to help her with her immigration problems. Nona begins to suspect something more going on and asks Clem to investigate her. But when Clem begins tailing Elena, he begins to suspect that she is not who she appears to be. Meanwhile, members of an opposing gang raid a hospital to try and kill an already wounded member of another gang. To stop an all out war between the two gangs, Doyle, MacElwaine, Donovan, make arrests and then have Captain Jonas arrange a sit down talk between the two gang heads right at the station. Elsewhere, a greedy and sleazy lawyer sues Roussakoff and Kersey for, among other things, allowing a suicidal woman to leap from a building onto his car.

When Santoro helps his gambler brother-in-law out of debit with a local bookie, a taped conversation between the bookie and Santoro lands in the hands of the corrupt IAB Lt. Denton who thinks that Santoro is involved in illegal extortion activities. Donovan investigates Santoro's case and finds out the truth, but Denton only wants to nail Santoro to take credit for the bust to advance his career. But Donovan realizes that by exposing Denton's setting up Santoro could jeopardize his own relationship with his fellow officers should they find out that he's been an informant for Internal Affairs. Meanwhile, the insanely jealous Clem and Lowery finally come to physical blows over Nona Valentine when Lowery finally admits that he has had romantic feelings for her all this time.

Donovan is forced to reveal his secret work about working with Internal Affairs for the last 15 years to the rest of the precinct before it becomes common knowledge after he finally blows the whistle on the crooked IA Lieutenant Gordon Denton. His fellow officers have differing reactions to this news. But most of them, including Johnson, Nona Valentine, Lowery, and Roussakoff, feeling betrayed and angry, plot their next move against Donovan. Donovan refuses to give a reason for his involvement for IAB despite Jonas advice as well as Santoro's questioning on why, while he also tells Kersey to keep her distance to him in the light of his revelation. Meanwhile, Doyle and MacElwaine are called to the scene of a homicide when an apartment building tenant is founded murdered. Their prime suspect becomes the building landlord whom was working with the precinct to evict his tenants to turn his building into expensive lawyer apartments. Also, Nona ends whatever romance she has with Johnson for his bad temper and continuing grudge against Lowry.

Donovan's retired policeman father, Gene, returns to town for heart surgery, having not even told his son that he had had a heart attack. Gene Donovan is disgusted and angry when his son admits that he was an informant for the hated Internal Affairs. However, Gene is ultimately forced to learn why Francis Donovan was forced to agree to work for the so-called "rat squad": to save Gene from an indictment for corruption by IAB. Eventually, the sympathetic Officer MacElwaine sticks up for Donovan in front of rest of the officers still ostracizing him for being an informant for IAB. Meanwhile, Nona helps a young prostitute who's in custody when she realizes that the woman, although denying it, has a unsupervised infant at home. Nona then goes undercover as a prostitute, eliciting a number of comments about the way she looks from her colleagues. Also, Roussakoff has trouble staying awake during his shift after working nights as a security guard at a mortuary so that he can buy his mother a car, which leads him to accidentally disrupt the funeral service of a fellow officer when he falls asleep in a coffin.

Lowery takes an interested in the murder of Elena, his former girlfriend, who is found dead in an alley, shot three times. The prime suspect is a Latvian businessman who she had often been by Johnson seen with in a coffee bar. Meanwhile, Santoro is asked to help out his trouble-making nephew, Johnny, with a few speeding tickets and ends up losing his temper with the highway cops. Also, Doyle and MacElwaine keep being called to the apartment of a couple who are continuously fighting, where the wife, Jerri, is clearly being beaten and abused, but refuses to press charges against her husband. When Doyle and MacElwaine return for another complaint, they find the woman with another man... and her husband murdered. Elsewhere, Roussakoff deals with problems he has with Kathleen and feels awkward at where they stand in their relationship.

Roussakoff and Doyle interview a man who comes into the precinct station to tell Santoro that his gay lover has a gun to his dog's head and is threatening to go on a rampage. Meanwhile, Kersey is asked by Donovan and Captain Jonas to go undercover as a rich widow trying to buy drugs from a local dealer... a supposedly easy job that goes badly wrong when the guy tries to rip her off and Kersey ends up killing him. When Lowery learns that Nona has no plans for her birthday, he plans to get the day off to spend it with her. But away from the job, their day culminates into a romantic evening, forcing them to acknowledge their ardent feelings for each other.

Kersey is promoted from patrolwoman to detective, but is not accepted by her new co-workers, until she earns their respect by organizing a raid on an apartment where an informant has told her two men, part of a right-wing militant group, are making bombs to blow up a subway station. Meanwhile, the precinct gets a new administrative aide, Dee Williams, someone Roussakoff remembers from his old precinct. But he tells Santoro that Dee has an obsessive-compulsive disorder that involves cleanliness and having to do everything four times. Also, Lowery and Nora finally begin a steamy affair, which does not go unnoticed by Clem who becomes unbearably bitter and aloof which leads to him taking out his frustrations on an arrested prostitute that him and Hector arrest.

An arrested drug dealer dies in a cell in the station house. The coroner determines that he died from self-strangulation, which puts Doyle in a jam as he was the arresting officer and was supposed to have kept an eye on his prisoner. Doyle finds himself unwillingly covering for a night shift officer who was looking after the prisoner. Meanwhile, Clem, while off the job, is approached outside a supermarket by a man who has a plan to scam the business' owners. A sting is set up to arrest the man, but things do not go according to plan when drug runners with ties to the con artist arrive on the scene, provoking a deadly shooting spree in the middle of the sting operation, leading Clem ending up getting shot. Kersey, Terry, and the other detectives try to force the crafty but dim-witted con artist, Steve Richards, to set up a big-shot lawyer who may be after him.

Lowery is assigned to watch over a smart-mouthed group of female gang members, called the Latin Queens, when one of them is found dead in her apartment. Suspects are brought in where Kersey interrogates them and discovers that one of the gang members is a cop who had been working undercover for over two years to bring down the gang. Meanwhile, MacElwaine arrests a man who throws Hector over a bar and injures the man's ribs while doing so. They take him to hospital where a doctor is amazed at the injuries he has received. Also, the precinct prepares for a new era as Officer MacElwaine announces that he is going to retire after 25 years on the force, and Santoro is promoted to Lieutenant. Although, everyone in the precinct accepts MacEwaine's decision to retire, his ability to defuse a hostage crisis later that day gives him confidence that he may still have a few more good years on the force. Jonas throws a double-party for the entire precinct to celebrate Santoro's promotion and MacEwaine's retirement. With Clem still in the hospital, Nona decides to stay with Lowery to see where their relationship will take them although it's clear that she still has feelings for Clem.