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“I’m not saying that’s the perfect formula, but that’s where my head is at when we’re looking at those new investments.”

The idea, he said, is to open “a different gateway into the organization for people who have the skill sets that are required to do those complex files but who don’t necessarily want to be police officers, don’t not necessarily want to carry guns, don’t necessarily want to go to Depot for six months and do frontline policing.”

While the agency does already have a stable of civilians providing analytical support to criminal investigators, Michaud said he hopes the next generation of civilian investigators will be able to take on expanded roles, including intelligence collection.

“I feel if we’re more effective in how we collect our intelligence that would allow us to be a bit more surgical in (who in the criminal organization) we go after and do it faster because the foundation of the information would be stronger.”

A separate training program will also be developed. While civilian investigators won’t be required to go through the firearms or physical training that regular members have to go through, they will still have to be educated in the Criminal Code, learn about national security and cyber threats, and get specialty training in surveillance and writing search warrants.