Frank Tripp is a fictional detective 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, 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, Jim Brass). Consequently, he has a good working relationship with all the CSIs, particularly Calleigh Duquesne.

Frank Tripp is originally from Texas (Rex Linn, a Texan himself, once missed a day's shooting of CSI: Miami to watch the Rose Bowl when the Texas Longhorns were playing). 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 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.

Relationships

The only one of Tripp's relationship 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 his alcoholism got out of hand 1.