Police Academy is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson in his directorial debut, and distributed by Warner Bros. Its storyline follows a new recruitment policy for an unnamed city's police academy to take in any recruit who wishes to apply and study to become a police officer. The film stars Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall and G. W. Bailey.

The film was produced by The Ladd Company. It premiered on March 23, 1984. It grossed $8.5 million in its opening weekend and more than $149 million worldwide, against a budget of $4.8 million, and remains the most successful film of the series as of 2022. The film spawned six sequels in the Police Academy franchise, and is the only film in the franchise to be rated R (due to nudity) by the MPAA.

In an unnamed city, the mayor orders the Metropolitan Police to accept all willing applicants for training, regardless of suitability. Hundreds apply, including rich girl Karen Thompson, reformed criminal and human beatbox Larvell Jones, gentle giant Moses Hightower, gun fanatic Eugene Tackleberry, lothario George Martin, soft-spoken Laverne Hooks, accident-prone Douglas Fackler, and bullied Leslie Barbara. Rebellious underachiever Carey Mahoney, arrested for yet another petty crime, is offered a deal by Captain Reed, a friend of his late father's, to avoid jail by enrolling in the academy. Planning to misbehave until expelled, Mahoney soon learns from Commandant Eric Lassard that he cannot quit or be dismissed until training ends.

Dismayed at being forced to take undesirable recruits, Police Chief Henry Hurst schemes to drive them out by making training intolerable. Under ruthless Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris, several cadets drop out. Harris targets Mahoney, believing his presence is disruptive, but when offered a chance to leave, Mahoney refuses, having developed a mutual attraction to Karen. Harris appoints cadets Chad Copeland and Kyle Blankes as squad leaders to spy on and harass the others. Their attempt to infiltrate a party backfires when Mahoney tricks them into entering the Blue Oyster Bar, where they are forced to dance with the gay biker patrons. In retaliation, they plant a prostitute in Barbara's room before inspection; Mahoney tries to smuggle her out, but they are forced to hide under a lectern during Lassard's presentation, where the prostitute unexpectedly performs fellatio on Lassard. When Lassard later sees Mahoney leaving, he assumes Mahoney was responsible.

Hightower asks Mahoney to teach him to drive before the cadet test. They steal Copeland's car to practice, evade a police pursuit, and leave it badly damaged. Following Hightower's successful completion of the test, Copeland racially insults Hooks after she drives over his feet. Enraged, Hightower overturns a police cruiser with Copeland inside it, leading to his ejection from the academy. Later, Copeland and Blankes try to provoke Mahoney into a fight over the ruined car, but Barbara intervenes and strikes Copeland, starting a brawl. Harris moves to expel Barbara, but Mahoney takes the blame and is dismissed.

Meanwhile, Fackler throws an apple from his police car during patrol—inadvertently striking a man who assumes someone else is responsible—starting a fight which escalates into a city-wide riot. Though no longer a cadet, Mahoney joins the cadets deployed to manage traffic, but they find themselves mistakenly in the center of the riots and heavily outnumbered. One criminal steals Blankes and Copeland's revolvers and takes Harris hostage on a rooftop. Mahoney tries to help, but the criminal threatens to kill Harris, and Mahoney is forced to surrender. Hightower, having followed the chaos, arrives and deceives the criminal into thinking he is on his side, before punching him down a flight of stairs, where he is arrested by Hooks.

At graduation, Mahoney and Hightower, now reinstated, receive awards for bravery. As Mahoney prepares his speech, Lassard is revealed to have hidden the prostitute under the lectern in retaliation for the earlier incident.

Paul Maslansky says he got the idea for the film when in San Francisco filming The Right Stuff: