Jim Brass - Career

Career

Early on, Brass and other officers new to the force were courted by Undersheriff McKeen in regards to taking bribes, the entire group having been invited to McKeen's for a barbecue. Brass made it clear he was not for sale and said he was not invited to anymore gatherings after that. ("For Warrick.") However, he was very much a player and a partier, describing work as "an interruption to his fun". He had a fling with former officer Ann-Marie Tolsom, his name later turning up on a list of those who'd had physical relations with her when she was believed killed by her ex-husband. (She turned out to still be alive after her ex was killed in prison and it was revealed she'd framed him and faked her death.) ("The List") Brass eventually left his wilder side behind, and eventually began running the CSI department, more as an administrator than as an investigator. Showing as an example of how much he trusts the team, Brass has stated that he would want Gil Grissom's CSI team to investigate his murder; he gave Grissom power of attorney rights should anything happen to him, which proved useful when Grissom chose to go ahead with his risky but life-saving surgery when he was shot.

Brass used to have Grissom's job as the supervisor of the CSI team. After young CSI Holly Gribbs was murdered on her first day in the field, he lost his position to Grissom. Brass was then given the position as a homicide detective, usually serving as the legal muscle for the CSI team and the one who does most of the arresting and interrogating of suspects.

In the two-part episode "A Bullet Runs Through It", Brass tries to counsel Detective Sofia Curtis, who believes she may have accidentally killed another officer in a chaotic shoot-out with a gang of drug dealers. He later is stunned and guilt-ridden to realize that he was actually the one that killed the officer. Later at the officer's funeral, his widow approached, and when Brass tried to explain how sorry he was, she told him that she knew it wasn't his fault.

While Brass could never be accused of being a "soft cop", he has a reputation for adhering to the rules and witty sarcasm when interviewing suspects. In the episode "Who and What", after the FBI's Jack Malone slams a suspect's head on the table, Brass rushes in and pulls him off, saying "If you want to rendition him to Gitmo, be my guest. But in this house, we play by the rules." In the episode "You Kill Me", after David Hodges creates a fictional story in which Brass uses his night stick on a suspect, fellow lab tech Henry comments "Captain Brass isn't the type of cop that smacks suspects around."

At the end of season 8, in "For Gedda", Brass tells CSI Warrick Brown "I hope you remember how lucky you are", after Warrick is cleared of a murder charge. Warrick is murdered at the end of the episode. In the season 9 premiere, For Warrick, Brass is shown to be stricken with guilt over these words.