During the first three seasons, Scott Brady appeared in 16 episodes as "Vinnie", a retired cop, who had opened a bar catering to police officers, and who acted as a sort of Greek chorus during the run of the series, commenting on the characters and plots.

The anthology format also allowed the show to try out characters and settings for series development, and during its broadcast run, Police Story generated three spin-offs.

Finally, "A Chance to Live", a special episode from the fifth season starring David Cassidy, was spun off into the series Man Undercover.

In later seasons, perhaps because of the expense of maintaining the anthology format on a weekly basis, Police Story became a series of irregularly scheduled television films.

Numerous actors, musicians, sports figures, radio personalities and former real-life cops, who were familiar to audiences in the 1960s and 1970s, made appearances on the series, including: