Da Vinci gives the go-ahead to establish the Red Light zone despite the opposition of Chief Jacobs and community groups. Ferris and her cohorts plan another grow-op bust only to find their target cleared out. Finn and Kosmo investigate the drive-by shooting of a teacher on his way to school. Detective Carter gets a lead in the gay-bashing case.

Things are finally going Da Vinci's way: the newly established Red Light zone is operating smoothly; both Lloyd Manning and Roger Woo are interested in buying the racetrack; the homeless squatters have moved to Crab Park; and one of the candidates for the police chief job assures Da Vinci of the viability of cross-training fire and police.

Da Vinci and Chief Jacobs negotiate a tenuous compromise on the level of police cooperation with the Crab Park squat, the Red Light zone, and the Fire Department initiative of posting notices on grow houses. But when a grow-op raid goes tragically wrong, the police circle the wagons to protect their own.