Cagney and Lacey are two female New York policewomen doing their job as best they can in a male-dominated police department. The weekly program was variously a "cop show", a relationship drama, and an "issues vehicle".
NYPD Beat partners Cagney (played in this pilot movie by Loretta Swit) and Lacey are promoted to Detectives after uncovering a major heroin dealer, only to be patronized by being assigned as decoys on an undercover prostitute detail. This leads them to discover a connection between one of the street girls, and a pair of unsolved murders in the Diamond District.—curtcass