Sammy Bryant

Not much is known of Sammy's childhood other than that his father played in the Rose Bowl, and that as a youth he used marijuana. It was through drugs that he met his future wife Tammi Bryant. He also mentioned that he was stoned when he applied with the LAPD "as a goof". Sometime later Sammy cleaned up his act and graduated high school and college, gradually applying and becoming a police officer with the LAPD. It turns out his buddies dared him to join up while he was still using. Him and Tammi eventually split after finding out that her photography instructor was in love with her.

Sammy lives in Castaic in the high desert, and encourages his partner Ben Sherman to move up there as well.

Advertisement Career in the LAPD Sammy rose through the ranks in the LAPD making it all the way to Detective II and was assigned in the department's notorious CRASH Units (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums). Where his sergeant was his future precinct captain Joel Rucker. Either before or after its disbandment, Sammy left CRASH and was assigned to the LAPD's Gang and Narcotics Division. It was there that Bryant met his future partner and long time friend Nate Moretta.

Sammy goes through a downward spiral of depression after an incident where Nate was beaten to death by gang members. The two partners were driving by a gang-controlled neighborhood that Nate was familiar with, and the people decided to mob them as revenge for arresting one of their members "Spider". In the aftermath of Nate's death, Sammy stays at his house for a while to take care of his wife and son.

After Nate's death in season 3, Sammy decides to leave the Gang and Narcotics Division and return to patrol as Police Officer III for the Alvarado Division. As a patrol officer, Sammy is thus partnered up with Sherman, the recent probationary graduate.

Ben and Sammy have a tumultuous relationship as partners. With Sammy's personality as a hard-nosed, tough street cop and Ben's determination to make a difference, they are a strong duo on the streets. However, their relationship takes a turn for the worse when the partners arrest a man and Sammy apparently finds a crack pipe on the suspect. Ben initially suspects that Sammy planted the pipe on the suspect, but it is later found that the officers who previously used the car left it there where Sammy presumably saw the pipe and assumed it belonged to the man they arrested. Despite Ben's continuous attempts to apologize, Sammy ignores him citing that one's partner should always have their back. Eventually, Sammy seems to get over Ben's accusation and made amends for the most part however at the end of season 5 they end up having a permanent feud and have a physical altercation when Sammy found out that Ben hired Elena's brother to ransack Sammy's house and steal a tape which showed Sammy losing his cool towards his ex-wife Tammy over the custody of their son. The series ends without knowing if Sammy was disciplined for lying to the IA by claiming the tape was dropped when the incident between him and his ex-wife.