As his administration faces a firestorm over a video shown to hundreds of police officers that depicted Muslims as extremists, New York Mayor Michael R Bloomberg conceded on Thursday that the episode had damaged relations between the city's Islamic community and the Police Department.
While the Mayor defended the Police Commissioner, Raymond W Kelly, who has apologised for the showing of the film to officers, he acknowledged that Mr Kelly would have to work harder to improve trust among Muslims. The video, called "The Third Jihad" was shown for months to officers receiving anti-terrorism training.
"Anything like this doesn't help credibility," Mr Bloomberg said at a news conference in Queens. "Ray's got to work at establishing, or re-establishing, or reinforcing the credibility that he does have" with the Muslim community.
The mayor also said the Police Department should have moved more quickly in releasing information about the showing of the video and about Mr. Kelly's cooperation with the filmmakers. On Tuesday, Mr. Kelly acknowledged that he had cooperated, though his staff had long contended that he had not.
"I regret that we didn't have the whole story right away," Mr. Bloomberg said. "I keep saying to everybody, 'Get the whole story out right away,' and that's to keep it from going on and on and on, and to give the public the information they need."
"That wasn't done as well as we could have done it, and next time we'll do it a little bit better," the mayor added.
The Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, disclosed on Tuesday that he had recommended to Mr. Kelly that he sit for an interview for the film, which asserted that American Muslim leaders wish to "infiltrate and dominate" the country.
The day before, Mr. Browne insisted that the filmmakers had used footage of Mr. Kelly without his cooperation.
In a statement late Thursday, Mr. Browne said he agreed with the mayor's criticism, writing, "I could have done a better job in providing a fully accurate account sooner." He said he had relied on his memory and fragmentary information in providing his initial responses about the video.
In his appearance in the video, Mr. Kelly does not criticise Muslims, but instead speaks about the general threat of a nuclear or biological terror attack on the city.
The revelation this week that the film had been screened for hundreds of officers, and not just a several as officials had previously claimed, was the latest in a string of episodes involving the Police Department that have angered Muslim-American groups.
Last year, accusations arose that police officers had spied on mosques and Islamic community groups, although the city disputed those reports.
On Wednesday and Thursday, several groups called for Mr. Kelly and Mr. Browne to resign over the video.
"New Yorkers must now question the credibility of every statement they make," said Cyrus McGoldrick, a manager at the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This controversy has moved beyond an issue of poor judgment in the use of an Islamophobic training film to an issue of the integrity of public officials."
The mayor, asked about the conflicting information released by the police, said he was sure that Mr. Browne had "acted in good faith" and that the clip of Mr. Kelly in the film had been "taken out of context."
He also described Mr Kelly as an experienced ambassador to many faiths and religions.
"Ray Kelly probably visits more mosques than an awful lot of people who believe in the faith that's practiced there," Mr. Bloomberg said. "He has reached out to this community as he has reached out to lots of other communities. We have things regularly at 1 Police Plaza for clergy people of each religion, including Islam. And we'll continue to do that.