Frank Tripp

Detective Sergeant Francis "Frank" Tripp is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Miami, portrayed by Rex Linn.

Background

Frank Tripp is a fictional Detective Sergeant in the Homicide division of the Miami-Dade Police Department in CSI: Miami. He frequently accompanies Horatio Caine and his team of CSIs to crime scenes, especially those that involve dangerous gangsters and criminals, as well as assisting them in serving warrants. He has a great deal of knowledge of forensic procedures and respects the efforts and results of the CSI team (compared to his counterpart on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Captain Jim Brass). Consequently, he has a good working relationship with all the CSIs, particularly Calleigh Duquesne. Although he is not as highly educated as the rest of the team, his knowledge and "street smarts" about the local area come in handy during investigations.

Frank Tripp is originally from Texas. (Rex Linn, a Texas native later raised in Oklahoma, once missed a day's shooting of CSI: Miami to watch the Rose Bowl when the Texas Longhorns were playing). Now that he's part of the MDPD, he's since become an avid Florida Gators fan. As a child, Tripp dreamed of being a firefighter. However, after his leg was shattered in a car accident, he fell in love with crime fiction during his many weeks' convalescence. Consequently, he joined the police force straight out of school - in the days before an undergraduate degree was a requirement, which forced him to replace academia with street smarts - and was later transferred to MDPD's gang unit before moving to Homicide.

It is revealed in the season six premiere that Tripp has been promoted to sergeant. He also has shaved his head which was revealed at the beginning of season 6. But on December 10, it is shown that he has finished his patrol rotation, and has been transferred back to homicide but it is revealed he has maintained his promotion of sergeant being titled "MDPD Homicide Detective Sergeant Frank Tripp".

Relationships

The only one of Tripp's relationships that is mentioned in the show is a past marriage to his wife, Melissa; they had three children, who remain unnamed, together. He divorced her after her alcoholism got out of hand.^[1] As their marriage deteriorates, she suspects him of cheating on her, and she hired a detective agency whose sole objective is to tempt men into cheating on their spouses and then report it. When the undercover investigator assigned to Frank is murdered, he becomes a suspect because the CSIs discover his fingerprints on her hotel room keycard. Eric Delko keeps Tripp's name quiet until he determines that Frank is not guilty of the murder, but Tripp is hurt by the suspicion nonetheless (episode 209, "Bait"). It was revealed in the season seven special features that Rex Linn stated "Give Frank a girlfriend or at least a dog."

References