Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that Police Commissioner William Bratton has done extraordinary things to narrow the city's racial divide.

New York City's Mayor at a news conference with Bratton in the Bronx said that the commissioner has tried hard to bring the NYPD and the communities they patrol together.

The Guardian newspaper published a story online on Tuesday with quotes from Bratton, which he said were taken out of context.

The Commissioner said on Tuesday night that the story gave a false impression that stop and frisks of black men by officers can lead to their disqualification as NYPD recruits.

In an interview Wednesday night on cable news channel NY1's 'Inside City Hall' Bratton again criticized the story. Yuseff Hamm, head of the black fraternal organization the Guardians was also seen in his favor.

Bratton said the department was trying to combat a viewpoint very common among some black families whenever a black wanted to become police officer.

Both Bratton and Hamm said the NYPD is not only looking forward how it could recruit more black officers but also how to keep them from dropping out once they've taken the civil service test.

According to department data, African-Americans make up only 15 % of the NYPD and out of the recent graduating class of 732 male officers, only 8.4 % were black.