The town of Garrison, New Jersey, is home to several corrupt NYPD officer: leader Lt. Ray Donlan along with Jack Rucker, Gary Figgis, and Joey Randone, who is having an affair with Donlan’s wife Rose.
Freddy Heflin, the town sheriff, idolizes the NYPD, and he had once hoped to become an NYPD officer. But he ultimately could not because of deafness in one ear, the result of rescuing a drowning woman many years earlier. Heflin is aware that Donlan and his associates are involved in police corruption, but he generally turns a blind eye to it as the NYPD officers do not recognize his authority. Internal Affairs investigator Lt. Moe Tilden approaches Heflin for information on the corrupt officers, but Heflin is intimidated by them and reluctant to betray them.
One night, Donlan’s nephew, Officer Murray Babitch, is side-swiped by two African-American teens while driving across the George Washington Bridge. The passenger points what looks like a weapon at Babitch just before Babitch’s tire blows out. Believing they have fired at him, Babitch shoots back and kills the teens. Afterwards, Rucker removes the steering-wheel lock that Babitch mistook for a weapon from the scene, but he is caught trying to plant a gun in the car. Worried about the repercussions to his own career, Donlan persuades Babitch to fake his own suicide.