After pledging to ramp up efforts to address the problem of murdered and missing aboriginal women, the RCMP plans to unveil a revised national policy that will include greater emphasis on information-sharing across jurisdictions, a standardized missing-persons intake form and a requirement that investigators set up a communications schedule with the victim's family.

The policy, which is part of the force's soon-to-be revealed missing-persons strategy, is in the final stages of review and is expected to be released next week. Already, the force has moved ahead with several initiatives since publishing its unprecedented report on murdered and missing women in May – for example, updating its homicide paperwork to identify whether a victim is aboriginal and selecting 10 communities in which to focus violence prevention efforts.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the director of the RCMP National Aboriginal Policing Services discussed the developments, which come in the wake of the slaying of an aboriginal girl in Winnipeg and amid renewed calls for a national inquiry.

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"Our policies have always dictated that missing-persons investigations are priority investigations that need to be followed through with haste and urgency," said Superintendent Tyler Bates. "That said, I think the additional investigative tools that are being provided … reinforce the gravity of these instances and the investigational avenues that need to be pursued."

The policy update, born from the May report that found 1,181 aboriginal women were either killed or went missing between 1980 and 2012, marks a new chapter in the force's efforts to tackle the problem.

The Native Women's Association of Canada, which consults with the RCMP, said the changes prove the force is increasingly willing to collaborate with native leaders.

"I think we're on the right track," said executive director Claudette Dumont-Smith. "They're working not so much in isolation now."

Assembly of First Nations interim national chief Ghislain Picard said while he welcomes the changes, policing is just one part of the solution and a national inquiry – which the Harper government has rejected – remains key to addressing the "root causes."

When the RCMP started collecting data from forces across the country for its report, it found that roughly one-fifth of the female murder files didn't identify whether the victim was aboriginal. After what Supt. Bates called a "painstaking" file-by-file exercise, the force managed to account for the victim's background in nearly all of the 6,551 cases.

The experience compelled the RCMP to update its own homicide paperwork to require that investigators indicate if a victim is aboriginal. The new form was distributed in May, but the force manually collected the information from January through May and has reported that data to Statistics Canada for the annual Homicide Survey.

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"This is a significant development for the collection of Homicide Survey data," a spokesman for the federal Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics said in an e-mail.

Statistics Canada is encouraging other forces to identify aboriginal origin in their homicide reporting, though roughly 85 per cent already do so. Supt. Bates said the RCMP's new homicide form will help to better define the scope of the problem and will "inform prevention efforts."

The force is already homing in on 10 RCMP jurisdictions it considers at high risk for violence against women; all of them encompass aboriginal communities. Six are in Saskatchewan, two in Manitoba, one in British Columbia and one in the Northwest Territories.

Supt. Bates said detachment commanders in those communities have been notified and will soon consult with local native leaders to develop violence prevention strategies. Asked which specific communities have been targeted, Supt. Bates said the force doesn't plan to release names. "We don't want to stigmatize or profile these communities in a way that damages our relationships with them," he said.

The updated policy will also require that an investigator establish a communication schedule with the family of a missing person. If the officer doesn't abide by the timetable, it could become a conduct issue, Supt. Bates said.

As well, the force is planning to roll out a standardized missing persons intake form to ensure that certain information is captured at the outset of each case. It will also serve as a sort of checklist outlining the investigative steps that should be taken.

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"I hope that by virtue of the work we're doing that we, in collaboration with the community partners we're working with, achieve something that makes a lasting difference," Supt. Bates said.