Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

Commandant Lassard starts a new community program that brings ordinary volunteers into the police academy for training as citizen patrol members. The recruits are an unlikely mix of older people, homemakers and young troublemakers, and the experienced officers of the academy take on their instruction. The project has backing from the authorities, but Captain Harris, who resents Lassard and the attention the scheme receives, works to make sure it fails.

The fourth entry in the Police Academy series, released in 1987, was directed by Jim Drake and written by Gene Quintano, with Paul Maslansky producing. It was Drake's first feature as director; his second, Speed Zone, followed in 1989. Steve Guttenberg returns as Mahoney, alongside Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, David Graf and Tim Kazurinsky, with Sharon Stone appearing as Claire Mattson. The production cost about 17 million dollars and took in roughly 77 million worldwide, a strong return for a comedy of its size.

On IMDb the film holds 5 out of 10 from about 48,000 votes, and on TMDB it has 5.5 out of 10 from around 1,300 votes. A critics' rating of 2.8 out of 10 from 20 reviews places it well below the audience scores. The gap suggests that general viewers, particularly those following the series, were more tolerant of the film than professional reviewers were.