The rear end of the vehicle on fire is shown to be fully engulfed in smoke, yet after the front of the vehicle goes into the water there is no fire or smoke at the rear end.
Based upon its slow speed, the position of the ferry is moved too far ahead after the drug dealer jumps onto it, and the gate is open when the officers arrive, yet Nelson is shown pushing it open after the scene changes.
When Poncherello is talking to Cora, even though she never moves, her position changes from facing the rail to facing him to again facing the rail.
When Russell and Tina get into trouble on their boat all the closeups show that Tina has straight hair but the wide shots show a woman with frizzy blonde hair.
The CHP being a traffic agency would not patrol a barrier island and instead would patrol freeways. Law enforcement in areas such as these is handled by local agencies.
Poncherello and Nelson ride past the convertible with the young people gong in opposite directions on different roads. 28 seconds later the car crashes through a barricade. Even at slower speeds such as 30 MPH, the car and officers would have been about a half-mile apart and the officers would have neither seen nor heard the car hit the barricade.
Even for temporary duty, Poncherello and Nelson would ride their motorcycles to Ocean Island for their shift and then return to their homes. Since CHP officers are on-call, the CHP would need to have a way to contact them when off-duty if they were needed.
The schedule showed Poncherello and Nelson working a full 8 hour shift from 7 AM to 3 PM. Even though a split shift is mentioned, it was not indicated on the schedule. When they arrive on Ocean Island in swimwear based on the position of the sun it is much later in the day. They are planning a swim when they get the radio call. If they had been on duty from 7 AM, then they would have been in uniform to take the ferry to the island.
The cooking coals shown on the vinyl top of the car would melt the vinyl and fall through. They would not start a fire as shown. Several of the coals were not completely hot, as they were black on one side.
During the initial traffic stop, the scene changes from an undeveloped road next to the beach on a clear day to an urban area on a smoggy day, indicating the footage was shot in two different locations on two different days.
During the initial traffic stop of the convertible when the two motorcycle officers are behind it, the camera was placed so that the top portion of the car's windshield frame covered only the faces of the CHP officers. This allowed the use of stunt doubles riding the motorcycles.
During the pursuit of the drug dealer, the building address for Union Distributing shows as 1400 Harbor Bv., which is a valid address for San Pedro, where filming took place- not on an island.
Just before Ponch and Bobby take Cora Dwayne into custody for being visibly nude in public (although she's on her own balcony) and possibly inciting a riot, Ponch announces to everyone on the nude beach below that they had better put their clothes on or they face arrest as well. Yet when the people on the beach are shown, many of the women have straps from bathing suits visible, meaning they're not nude. The beach umbrellas and other objects are placed to block off most of the beachgoers' bodies, but it's clear that either the actors or the director was concerned about possible nudity.
In the initial traffic stop Russell's car pulls over without the driver moving the steering wheel in that direction.
During the drug dealer pursuit, several rail lines and sidings are shown. There would be no railroad lines and sidings on an island served only by a ferry.
When the drug dealer jumps onto the ferry, it is moving so slowly that both officers had time to do the same thing, as they were only a couple of seconds behind him. Even if they did not do that, they could radio for officers on the other side to arrest the dealer upon arrival of the ferry.
Poncherello tells Lily he gave her a pint of his blood, but he has no bandages on either arm from a blood donation.
Poncherello tells the doctor that no matter how long it takes he'd be at the hospital until Lily wakes up. Since he was one of only two law enforcement officers for the island, he could not remain out of service for that amount of time just to watch an unconscious victim of a crime.
At the station, Nelson finds out he has duty on Sunday, and Webster tells him half of Webster's shift is out with the flu. Webster has always worked the same shift as Nelson, so it would have been half of their shift.
Permits for shotguns were not required in California in 1982.