Frank Tenpenny: The Corrupt Cop of San Andreas

Officer Frank Tenpenny is the main villain of GTA San Andreas (2004): a Los Santos police officer who runs a corrupt anti-gang unit and keeps CJ on a leash from the first minute of the game to the last. Samuel L. Jackson voices him, with Chris Penn as his partner Eddie Pulaski.

Who Is Officer Tenpenny?

Tenpenny leads C.R.A.S.H., short for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, with Officers Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez. The unit is meant to fight the gangs; in practice it deals with them, takes its cut and removes anyone who gets in the way. It is modelled on the LAPD's real CRASH unit and the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s, when officers were found dealing drugs, planting evidence and beating suspects.

The short film The Introduction shows how far the unit goes: Pulaski beats Officer Ralph Pendelbury, who was about to talk, and Tenpenny hands Hernandez the gun and makes him shoot.

How Tenpenny Controls CJ

In the very first mission, In the Beginning, C.R.A.S.H. stops CJ on his way home from the airport. Tenpenny takes his money, ties him to the Pendelbury murder with the weapon used that night, and drops him in Ballas territory. From then on, CJ works for him whenever he calls, in missions such as Burning Desire and Gray Imports.

In The Green Sabre, the full picture appears: Tenpenny protected the attack that killed CJ's mother and has turned Big Smoke and Ryder. He then sends CJ out of Los Santos, and keeps using him in the countryside (Badlands, where a witness must be silenced), in San Fierro (555 We Tip, Snail Trail) and in Las Venturas, where Misappropriation turns into a trap and High Noon ends with CJ killing Pulaski.

The Trial and the Riot

Near the end of the game, Tenpenny is finally charged, with a list that runs from racketeering to drug dealing. The witnesses against him disappear one after the other, and he is acquitted. The verdict sets Los Santos on fire, in scenes that echo the Los Angeles riots of 1992, the year the game is set; the mission Riot puts CJ in the middle of it.

How Does Tenpenny Die?

In End of the Line, after Big Smoke falls, Tenpenny sets the Crack Palace on fire and escapes in a fire truck. Sweet grabs the ladder, CJ chases them through the streets, and the truck finally drops off a bridge into Grove Street. Tenpenny crawls out of the wreck, still boasting that he kept the city clean, and dies in the street. CJ does not need to fire a shot: "See you around, officer."

Officer Tenpenny at a Glance

Every other character is on our San Andreas characters page, and every mission on the missions page.