Kain commands TIDE

A former Corning police officer has been named the commander of the Tehama Interagency Drug Enforcement task force.

Tehama County sheriff's Sgt. Dave Kain is now leading the drug agency after the state's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement pulled its funding and manpower off the team.

The bureau had provided a special agent to command the task force for more than 10 years, but due to state budget cuts discontinued that coordination with the county.

"With the current funding challenges, the task force is hard pressed to stay in existence," said Tehama County Sheriff Dave Hencratt. "But we realize how important this task force is to the community and made the necessary changes to keep it functioning."

Kain, 38, is a 16-year veteran of law enforcement and has spent many of those years in narcotics enforcement.

He graduated from the Butte Police Academy in 1995, and after a short stint as a reserve officer in Woodland, was hired by the Corning Police Department in 1996, where he stayed until moving over to take a sergeant's position with the Sheriff's Department in 2008.

During his time in Corning, he served five years as a K-9 handler, became the department's gang investigator, field training officer, SWAT operator, Taser instructor and narcotics specialist serving first on the Tehama and Glenn Methamphetamine Enforcement Team, then on the Tehama Interagency Drug Enforcement task force for five and a half years.

Kain said he is very pleased with his new assignment.

He commands a six-person task force, which includes agents from the Corning and Red Bluff police departments, the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Department, one of which is the department's full-time marijuana enforcement officer.

"Sgt. Kain has demonstrated both the skills, experience and drive necessary to continue the success of this unit," Hencratt said. "We have the full support of the Tehama County Board of Supervisors in assigning Sgt. Kain to this position."

Kain said the main drugs the task force is fighting on the streets is methamphetamine, illegal use of prescription drugs, and the sale of marijuana.

"Methamphetamine continues to be a big factor in our communities. It is quite substantial in our time and efforts and it doesn't look like the problem is going away any time soon," Kain said. "We are also seeing an increase in people trying to utilize 215, medical marijuana, as a defense in illegal pot sales."

He said there is a close connection between much of the crime that takes place in the county and drug use.

"We see a lot of drug use overlapping with other crimes so drug users can pay for and support their habit," Kain explained.

He said there is some "streamlining" taking place in the task force right now due to a cut in the agency's budget.

"We have to be more efficient and do more with less," Kain said. "That being said, we will continue to do all we can to get drug use and trafficking off the streets, as we work closely with other agencies in the state in our criminal investigations."

Hencratt said the new task force commander is also the department's gang expert, although there is no interagency gang task force functioning at this time.

Kain's interest in law enforcement began when he was in high school and became an Explorer with the Sheriff's Office. He graduated from Mercy High School in 1991, then went into the U.S. Marines Corps, where he served for about five months before receiving a medical discharge.