Frank Tenpenny

An officer of the Los Santos Police Department (LSPD), Tenpenny—along with Jimmy Hernandez and Eddie Pulaski(as well as with Ralph Pendelbury temporarily) -- make up the individual C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) unit.

Although both Tenpenny and the C.R.A.S.H. unit claim and appear to be ordinary police officers, Tenpenny and the others that make up the unit are extremely corrupt individuals who use their knowledge of the gangs they are hired to stop to coerce them into surrendering some of their profits and supplies to them, and regularly commit acts of police brutality, making them almost like a gang themselves but with the power of law enforcement behind them.

Tenpenny is voiced by actor Samuel L. Jackson, whom he bears somewhat of a slight resemblance to.

History
Tenpenny rides with Eddie Pulaski and a third C.R.A.S.H.member. Prior to the game's storyline, the third member is Ralph Pendelbury, whom Tenpenny has killed in The Introduction for cooperating with internal affairs. Just prior to Pendelbury's murder, Tenpenny and Pulaski brief their newest recruit, Jimmy Hernandez, in a scene reminiscent of the film Training Day. They both order Hernandez to pull the trigger on Pendelbury, thereby initiating Hernandez into their distorted view of things. Tenpenny has known protagonist Carl Johnson at least since Brian Johnson's death, and CJ recognizes Tenpenny and calls him by name from the very beginning of the game.

Tenpenny likes to "step on" CJ on a regular basis to remind him of who's in charge. Tenpenny is obviously seen to be a powerful influence on the criminals of Los Santos, even warning CJ that "we can shit on you from such a height, you'll think God himself has crapped on you." He sees CJ as another tool in his dirty dealings. He and Pulaski extort several Grove Street Families members, including Big Smoke and Ryder, but Tenpenny appears to take pleasure in exercising control over CJ specifically. He officially threatens CJ to do his work or he'll frame him for Officer Pendelbury's murder, whom Tenpenny had Hernandez kill merely ten minutes before Carl's return to Los Santos. While Tenpenny claims he is pitting the gangs against each other to wipe them all out, he is actually allied with the Ballas, who (unlike the GSF) have no reservations against dealing crack cocaine.

C.R.A.S.H. lets the Ballas flood the city with drugs, which turns many GSF members into addicts, effectively crushing their gang. Tenpenny also convinces Smoke to betray his gang in return for heading up the drug operation; in turn, Smoke convinces Ryder to defect also. Tenpenny and Pulaski personally oversee the Ballas murder of Carl and Sweet Johnson'smother Beverly Johnson (This is revealed during The Green Sabre). Tenpenny anticipates that her death will bring CJ back to Los Santos, and accosts him less than a block from his home in Ganton and forces the taxi which CJ was passenger in, off with his suitcase and which is probably the main reason why CJ has only one pair of clothes at the start of the game. The C.R.A.S.H. team also plants evidence on him linking him to Pendelbury's death (allowing Tenpenny to exploit CJ into doing whatever he sees fit). He warns CJ not to leave town and dumps him out of the patrol car in Balla territory.

Later, Tenpenny and Pulaski kidnap CJ following a large gang assault beneath the Mulholland Intersection (which ended with Sweet being shot and incarcerated in a prison hospital upstate, and Carl being kidnapped. Clearly, Tenpenny personally ensured that CJ would escape the law). They drive CJ miles away to rural Whetstone and dump him in the woods with orders to kill an FBI witness. He also tells CJ, who now knows of Big Smoke's involvement with C.R.A.S.H., not to kill Big Smoke, or the imprisoned Sweet will be put on a Balla cell block. Tenpenny and Pulaski surface every so often to lean on CJ and usually order him to plant evidence on or kill someone who threatens to expose the true colours of C.R.A.S.H.

With Big Smoke ruling Los Santos as its crack kingpin under C.R.A.S.H.'s control, Tenpenny's reach is expanding. Despite this, the FBI is becoming interested in the wave of drugs crippling the city. CJ finally outlives his usefulness to Tenpenny and Pulaski, who are becoming edgy and less tolerant of loose ends by the time CJ reaches Las Venturas. There they have him acquire an FBI dossier. After this he drives CJ out to the desert, where Tenpenny attacks Hernandez for cooperating with Internal Affairs and orders Carl to dig his own grave. He then leaves CJ and Hernandez for Pulaski to watch so he can "get drunk and get laid", so he is not present to see CJ murder Pulaski.

Upon taking back Madd Dogg's mansion, CJ learns that Tenpenny has been charged with racketeering, corruption, possession and use of narcotics and numerous sexual assaults. However, as all the prosecution's witnesses have either been killed by CJ or otherwise gone missing, Tenpenny is acquitted, which ignites a riot in Los Santos reminiscent of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Personality
Frank is a corrupt police officer, and is depicted as a very violent, sadistic and impulsive man. He often used Carl as his "dog". Tenpenny is also heartless and is easily angered if things doesn't go pretty well. He also had helped both Vagos and Ballas to make both Aztecas and GSF cease to exist in order to gain more power and respect from them instead of preventing them from committing more crimes.

Frank Tenpenny appears to have few qualms in abusing people verbally or physically and seems to be fond of practicing brutality on others. Before the final mission, End of the Line, he realized that Carl has "gone away from him" and decided to eliminate him, which shown in the End of the Line, he attempted to kill Carl by using his shotgun but fails to do so.