In an unnamed city, the mayor announces that the Metropolitan Police must accept all willing applicants for training, regardless of their suitability for the role.

Hundreds of citizens, who never thought they could be police officers, apply: rich girl Karen Thompson; former criminal and human beatbox Larvell Jones; gentle giant Moses Hightower, gun fanatic Eugene Tackleberry; lothario George Martin; soft-spoken Laverne Hooks; accident-prone Douglas Fackler; and bullied Leslie Barbara.

Rebellious underachiever, Carey Mahoney, arrested for yet another petty crime, is given a chance to escape prison time by Captain Reed, a friend of his father: enroll in the academy and complete training.

Mahoney agrees, planning to misbehave and be forced out, but he learns from Commandant Eric Lassard that he cannot quit or be rejected until training is complete.

Mahoney attempts to smuggle her off campus, but they are forced to hide under a lectern just as Lassard leads a presentation to a group of fellow officers.

The pair steal Copeland's small, two-door Honda to practice in, evade a police pursuit, and leave it heavily damaged.

Enraged, Hightower overturns a police cruiser with Copeland inside it, leading to his ejection from the academy, to the dismay of his fellow cadets.

Meanwhile, Fackler throws an apple from his police car during patrol, inadvertently striking a man who mistakenly assumes someone else is responsible, starting a fight which escalates into a city-wide riot.

Before he can leave, Mahoney joins the deployed cadets to tackle the disorder, but they find themselves inadvertently transported into the center of the riots and heavily outnumbered.

Hightower, having followed the chaos, arrives and deceives the criminal into thinking he is on his side, before throwing him down a flight of stairs where he is arrested by Laverne.

At the cadet graduation ceremony, Mahoney and Hightower have been reinstated to the academy and receive the highest commendations for their bravery.

I asked the sergeant about them, and he explained that the mayor had ordered the department to accept a broad spectrum for the police academy.

[9] Hugh Wilson was hired as director based on his success with WKRP in Cincinnati, even though he was not familiar with many films of this genre.

"After the enormous success of Police Academy, I no longer believe that you have to show the female breast or make cruel ethnic jokes, not to mention the rampant sexism.

[13] Police Academy opened in the number 1 spot in 1,587 U.S. theaters on March 23, 1984, to a first weekend total gross of $8.6 million.

[19] Critic Vincent Canby, of The New York Times, gave a mixed review, saying: “The movie plows through one outrageous sequence to the next with the momentum of a freight train”.

[20] Rita Kemply, of The Washington Post, wrote: “Attention, all units: Slapstick in progress in the vicinity of Police Academy.