"1-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, please respond to a 10-101 ... sighting of tropes seen in this episode":
Police Brutality: Bowan and Gurney are out to get the scoop on police brutality and other misconduct, even when it doesn't exist, and use circumstantial evidence to write sensationalist stories. note This episode was likely not to suggest that legitimate news media shouldn't report on police brutality, but rather to address the issues that arise through sensationalism, unethical and tabloid journalism.
Strawman News Media: Bowan and Gurney, the two rouge journalists who are out to make Malloy and Reed look like rouge police officers. The lesson Malloy tries to pass on to Reed – ignore these yokels and they'll go away – becomes all but impossible to teach when Bowan and Gurney interfere in the arrest of armed robbery suspects ... and when they still refuse to leave an innocent man pays the price with his life.
What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: A recurring theme througout the series, this time a father of three, who likely never knew what hit him when he walks into the line of fire of an armed robber's gunshot. This was the indirect result of Bowan and Gurney harassing Malloy and Reed long enough for one of the suspects to shoot at Malloy ... but he misses and the innocent man takes the shot. Also – although less sympathetically so – for Bowan and Gurney, who likely destroyed otherwise promising careers in journalism with their tactics, and will (as Reed points out) probably be thinking about this situation the rest of their lives.
