The NYPD is downplaying a published report Friday that accuses the Police Department of admitting Police Academy recruits that have been arrested for drinking offenses.

A report in Friday’s edition of The New York Post claimed the NYPD is lowering its standards because it is in need of more recruits to fill out this year's class at the Police Academy.

According to the paper, background checks on 100 of the latest recruits indicated that nine had been arrested for drinking and driving. Six others were busted for drinking from an open container.

However, at an NYPD promotions ceremony Friday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly maintained that the department’s policy has not changed, adding that there is a difference between an arrest and a conviction.

“The totality of the circumstances are looked at,” said Kelly. “We're not hiring anybody with a DWI conviction. I think that might have been a past practice at some time, but we're not hiring anyone with a DWI conviction. But the [Post] article today never mentioned convictions - the article only mentioned arrests. Arrests in and of themselves can never be a bar to public employment.”

Earlier this year, Kelly implemented a new NYPD policy which calls for the firing of any officer who seriously injures someone while driving drunk. The new policy was put in place after then-police officer Joseph Gray killed four members of a Brooklyn family while driving drunk last summer.