What about security bots? They won't be as harmless :)
(In fact, if at least some of civilians were armed, it'd add a lot to the game, IMO... Though honestly, even since the very first X-COM, I was always thinking... Let's say I'm one of those civilians who has some relatively decent weapons storage. There's a fight outside my window. I peek out and spot a sectoid and a flying armor X-COM folks shootout. Wonder whom would I aim at first -- with the look of those suits ;)