VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The head of BC’s independent police investigations office has officially reported for duty.

Richard Rosenthal expects to take his first case this summer. The former LA county deputy district attorney started work this week and isn’t waiting around to get settled; his first order of business is hiring support staff and investigators.

“We just posted 24 investigative positions, which we… have to obviously go through, do the recruiting, do the hiring and then train individuals, getting them office space, getting them the tools they need,” he explains.

Rosenthal admits some of them will have policing backgrounds, but over time that should change.

“The intent is to try and really civilianize the office to such an extent that the only people who are working there and doing the investigations are people who have not previously been employed by police agencies, but that’s going to take some time.”

He says provincial legislation allows him to hire any former officer who hasn’t been in policing in BC in the past five years.

Rosenthal expects the office — which has a $10 million annual budget — to handle around 300 cases a year.