Based on an actual top secret police program, "21 Jump Street" dramatizes the treacherous siuations undercover officers face everyday. Tantalised by the chance to re-live the innocence of their youth, these cops are jolted by the harsh reality of crim-busting on high school campuses. In addition to re-experiencing study halls, adolescent romances and authoritarian teachers, the cops also find themselves vulnerable to the controversial issues confronting teenagers in the 1980's. Headquartered in the abandonned chapel on Jump Street, this undercover foce attempts to go beyond the crimes by exploring and better understanding the wayward youths involved.

Leading the young team is Captain Jenko (Frederic Forrest), a cynical product of the Woodstock generation who still plays '60s music with a garage band and slips easily into hippie garb and slang. The ensemble is comprised of officer Judy Hoffs (Holly Robinson), a beautiful black woman from Chicago who rejects her upper-middle class roots to be a cop; Ioki (Dustin Nguyen), a Japanese immigrant who learned to speak English by watching television; and Doug Penhall (Peter DeLouise), an inflammable officer who just as easily might have become a criminal himself, but prefferred the job security of the police force. The series also features a baby-faced young officer fresh out of the police academy in Tommy Hanson (Johnny Depp).