Det. Sgt. Chano Amanguale

Chano Amanguale works detective duty at Greenwich Village's 12th Precinct, one of the quick-tempered, wisecracking cops filling out Barney Miller's squad room. He's sharp-tongued and a little vain, quick to needle his colleagues and quicker to defend his own competence, moving through the station's parade of oddball collars with impatient, streetwise confidence.

Gregory Sierra gives Chano a coiled, live-wire energy that cuts through the squad room's shambling patience — he's the one who snaps first, needles hardest, and makes the mundane paperwork of policing feel like it might combust. That friction, played for both comedy and a real sense of pressure, makes him one of the show's most alert presences.