ST. CLOUD -- After 13 years an agreement between the St. Cloud Police Department and the community has been re-signed.

The St. Cloud Community Policing Agreement was revised and signed into action Thursday afternoon at the St. Cloud Police Department. The document was originally created in 2005 and has since been reviewed and revised for 2018.

Thirteen community organizations took part in the signing including: African Coalition Network, Adom LLC, African American Male Forum, African Yen Catering Services, Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, Higher Ground Church of God in Christ, Hands Across the World, First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, #UNITECLOUD and GRIP/ISAIAH. Along with these groups the City of St. Cloud and St. Cloud Police Department signed the agreement.

The document was originally created to fight against perceived racially-biased police stops and still envokes the same message as it did 13 years ago.

James Alberts is the Pastor of Higher Ground Church of Christ. Alberts helped lead the signing event. He says the work that has gone into revising the Community Police Agreement has been astronomical.

"We've put in about 40 hours worth of work just between 2016 and 2018. Over 20 meetings we have come together. In our cohort we have lawyers, we have advocates of different organizations and representations of all walks of life."

Alberts says although the document has been revised and signed once again, their work is still not complete.

"January 20th of 2019 is on the calendar [for review of the agreement] that's us learning our lessons from the agreement 13 years ago. We want to make sure this agreement stays in the forefront as for the things it talks about but more importantly that we continue to build and foster relationships."

Since St. Cloud has now revised their agreement, other organizations such as the Asamblea de Derechos Civiles (The Assembly of Civil Rights) is looking to start more agreements with other area communities. Patty Keeling is the group's Vice President. She says they've already started to reach out to leaders in area cities.

"It's really a building block and from here now we're going to go out to Waite Park and Cold Spring, we've already talked to their police chiefs."

Other than Waite Park and Cold Spring, Keeling says the group will be working with more towns in the near future.

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