Last week the provincial government rolled out new amendments to the Missing Persons and Presumption of Death Amendment Act.

The new amendments give police more power when it comes to a missing person investigation where there is no reason to suspect a crime has taken place.

Swift Current City RCMP Staff Sergeant Gary Hodges said that with these new amendments, it will enhance their abilities for missing person cases.

"There are a couple of tools that we can add to our toolbox so to speak when we're investigating missing persons," he said. "The two main things that the amendments to the act have allowed us to do is apply to the courts to enter a dwelling house or any other premises if we have grounds to believe the missing person may be in there and they're a minor or a vulnerable person. The other thing that the amendments have done is allowed us access to records. So if we have a missing person who we haven't been able to contacted or located we can now make application to look at their bank records or any other documented records at institutions that may assist us to see if they have had any activity on those accounts or anything like that."

Hodges said that since every missing person case is different, he doesn't know how often they will use the new amendments, but a recent example of when they could have used it would have been the Colton Koop case from late last year.

"This just gives us that extra ability, and it's an important tool when we look at if there is no evidence of foul play," he said. "Before these amendments were changed or anything like that, we would have to obtain a search warrant in order to look at those bank records, and if there has been no offence, we couldn't get a search warrant. It could be important in locating the individual if they are suffering from of a mental health ailment or something like that. We need to obviously find the person and get them help and the assistance that they need."

Hodges added that these amendments enhance their abilities to help people.