New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that xxx, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter the Police Academy, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Not everyone is there through choice, though. Social misfit Mahoney has been forced to sign up as the only alternative to a jail sentence and it doesn t take long before he falls foul of the boorish Lieutenant Harris. But before long, Mahoney realises that he is enjoying being a police cadet and decides he wants to stay... while Harris decides he wants Mahoney out!

A group of good-hearted but incompetent misfits enter the police academy, but the instructors there are not going to put up with their pranks.

Mahoney and friends have graduated from the Police Academy and are issued with their first assignments. As before, their cheerfulness and devotion to duty outweighs any shortcomings, but are even they ready to do battle with a band graffiti daubing terrorists?

The old captain Lassard, chief of the police academy, goes to Florida to receive an award. In the city arrives also the cynic captain Harris who wants to take Lassard s job. Harris wants to place himself in a favourable light in front of the high military hierarchy but, at the airport, Lassard exchange his bag with another one....

When police funding is cut, the Governor announces he must close one of the academies. To make it fair, the two police academies must compete against each other to stay in operation. Mauser persuades two officers in Lassard s academy to better his odds, but things don t quite turn out as expected...

A new batch of recruits arrives at Police Academy, this time a group of civilian volunteers who have joined Commandant Lassard s new Citizens on Patrol program. Although the community relations project has strong governmental support, a disgusted Captain Harris is determined to see it fail.

The Russian government hires the veterans of the Police Academy to help deal with the Mafia.

Those bumbling cadets take to the streets when three inept goons successfully orchestrate a metropolitan crime wave.

The Police Academy misfits travel to Miami, Florida for their academys commanding officer, Lassard, to receive a prestigious lifetime award pending his retirement, which takes a turn involving a group of jewel thieves after their stolen loot that Lassard unknowingly has in his possession.

The misfit Police Academy graduates now are assigned to train a group of civilian volunteers to fight crime once again plaguing the streets.