When Jon and Ponch are talking about the hearse before turning onto the one way street Jon is on the left. When they make the turn, Jon is on the right. In the subsequent close up, Jon is back on the left.
On the first burglary, even though the driver of the van had placed a CHP vehicle tag on the antenna and raised it above the roof in a prior scene, the tag is not visible as Jon and Ponch approach, yet Jon mentions it after Ponch says they should check on the van. Ponch comments he did not see it.
When the driver is getting back into the van after being spotted by the helicopter, as he is opening the door, a parked police motorcycle is visible in the side view mirror. In the following scene, Jon is still riding to overtake the van with an ETA of two minutes. In a scene following that, Jon, who was already on the freeway, is shown getting onto the freeway using a car pool ramp from a side street.
Unit C-18 slides to a stop and in the following scene the officer is immediately seen outside the car before they had time to exit.
When the wrong way driver is stopped, you can see the lane is split with a painted yellow line indicating it is a two way street ( a one way street would have a white line). Additionally, there are street signs facing the "Wrong Way" as well as a vehicle parked also facing the "Wrong Way", indicating this is a two way street.
The aerial shot after the briefing shows vehicles on the wrong sides of the freeway. The film was reversed.
Actual CHP helicopters use side numbers that end in "HP" for Highway Patrol and flew using a much different livery, similar to the patrol cars and motorcycles of that era. Registration numbers stay with aircraft for the life of the air frame and are very expensive to repaint which explains why it stands out as "non police issue" more than other vehicles.
In the opening scenes, the van is parked next to a wooded area near houses that are adjacent to the freeway, yet as Jon and Ponch pass by in the closeup shots behind them the freeway has no trees or houses, indicating the scenes were filmed in two totally different locations.
The background footage beside Jon when he is talking to Ponch after the van makes a u-turn is the same empty parking lot with rocks from when he was first dispatched to the van and also when they were riding to the high school earlier. The background in the following aerial shot when Jon makes a u-turn shows the background was a cliff. This indicates the same location was used for multiple shots.
While aloft in the helicopter (after leaving the boy's reunion with his mother) the chopper's engine and blades sounds are clearly dubbed in with a brief loop that repeats several times.
At the end of the opening pursuit sequence, Ponce and Jon tell the three occupants to turn around and walk up to them to handcuff them. They're going to come up short, as each officer has only one handcuff case on his duty belt.
After taking off after dropping off the boy, the audio for the helicopter engine sound is looped, which makes it sound like the engine is cutting out. In prior scenes, it was a continuous engine sound.
After Mr. Singleton asks Ponch if he is going to write him a ticket, in the close up shots on Jon, a crew member wearing a white shirt is visible in the lens of his sunglasses. This crew member is also reflected later in the windshield of the helicopter while it is supposed to be flying.
When the helicopter takes off after picking up the boy, the camera used for overhead shots is visible hanging under it.
The freeway burglar despite using intelligent planning for the burglaries such as the CHP vehicle tag fails to wear gloves during the break-in.
The photographer says he is on public property. While this is true, California law prohibits pedestrians and low-powered vehicles such as bicycles from being on freeways due to the speed differential- freeways are for fast-moving traffic.
Getraer says they have nearly 100 vehicles operating out of Central, and 99 of them spend most of their time on the street while 1 of them spends most of the time in the repair shop. A fleet that size would require several spare vehicles that would be available to use in the event one of the regular vehicles were wrecked or in for extended service. These vehicles would not spend most of their time on the street but rather parked at the station, a fact that would be known by Getraer since supervisors are responsible for spare vehicles.
After the casket falls out of the hearse and several cars skid to a stop without colliding, Jon calls Baricza for an 11-82. An 11-82 is an accident with property damage. Since none of the cars collided and the casket appeared undamaged, no property was damaged, so the code usage was improper. The proper code would have been 11-25 for a traffic hazard.
On the traffic stop, Mr. Singleton hands Ponch a vehicle registration but never gives him a driver license. While Ponch knew his name, he would not know the other information needed for a ticket such as address, date of birth, driver license number, etc.