Ed Wells, the obnoxious cop, is training a rookie. But the rookie is too hesitant to cover a suspect when he looks harmless. In one instance there is a bank robbery reported and the suspect is an old man just sitting in the bank. The rookie says the old guy looks harmless enough. And after talking to him he actually is just a very old man who has lost his wallet and therefore does not know who he is or where he lives. He went to the bank and handed the teller a note that said "Give me a million dollars". The old man's reasoning was that the bank had plenty of money and he would need that money to build a new home since he has misplaced the one he had. So the rookie feels justified.
The second time he takes this attitude is when the police are investigating a possible bomb being planted in a grocery store. The suspect takes off on foot and appears to take a hostage. But all is not as it seems.
So the problem with this rookie is that, unlike Barnie Fife from the old Andy Griffith show who always went off half cocked, the rookie is trying to make judgments based on how harmless suspects look, even against the instructions of senior officers. And it's not like the senior officers are telling the rookie to shoot the suspects, just cover them in case the suspects are indeed armed and dangerous.
One thing that Adam-12 is doing at this point is actually having pedestrians in the way as the police give chase. This would be the realistic situation, but previously TV shows had the streets as empty as they would be at 4AM.
The second time he takes this attitude is when the police are investigating a possible bomb being planted in a grocery store. The suspect takes off on foot and appears to take a hostage. But all is not as it seems.
So the problem with this rookie is that, unlike Barnie Fife from the old Andy Griffith show who always went off half cocked, the rookie is trying to make judgments based on how harmless suspects look, even against the instructions of senior officers. And it's not like the senior officers are telling the rookie to shoot the suspects, just cover them in case the suspects are indeed armed and dangerous.
One thing that Adam-12 is doing at this point is actually having pedestrians in the way as the police give chase. This would be the realistic situation, but previously TV shows had the streets as empty as they would be at 4AM.
