Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has apologized for his longstanding support of the controversial 'stop and frisk' police strategy ahead of a potential Democratic presidential run.

Addressing the Christian Cultural Center, a historically black church in Brooklyn, on Sunday, Bloomberg, 77, admitted: 'I was wrong.'

Bloomberg said the practice often led to the disproportionate detaining of blacks and Latinos, adding that he 'can't change history'.

But he said that if anyone was wrongly stopped by police: 'I apologize', adding: 'Our focus was on saving lives. But the fact is: Far too many innocent people were being stopped while we tried to do that.

'And the overwhelming majority of them were black and Latino. That may have included, I’m sorry to say, some of you here today, perhaps yourself, or your children, or your grandchildren, or your neighbors or your relatives.'

The 'stop and frisk' practice gave police wide authority to detain people they suspected of committing a crime. Bloomberg aggressively pursued the tactic when he first took over as mayor in 2002.

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Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pictured speaking Sunday, is reversing his longstanding support of the controversial 'stop and frisk' police strategy ahead of a potential Democratic presidential run after addressing a black church in Brooklyn on Sunday

Bloomberg speaks at the Christian Cultural Center on Sunday in Brooklyn. Reports indicate the former New York mayor is considering entering the Democratic presidential primary race

Bloomberg told the congregation Sunday that he wants to earn back the trust of black and Latino communities.

The billionaire said: 'Over time, I’ve come to understand something that I long struggled to admit to myself: I got something important wrong.

'I got something important really wrong. I didn’t understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities. I was totally focused on saving lives — but as we know: good intentions aren’t good enough.

'In recent months, as I’ve thought about my future, I’ve been thinking more about my past — and coming to terms with where I came up short.'

His ally and the church's pastor Rev. A. R. Bernard told the congregation: 'Come on C.C.C., show some love and appreciation.'

The speech was Bloomberg's first since his name came back into the spotlight as a possible presidential candidate.

And it was the first time time the Democrat has not defended the policy.

In 2018 he told The New York Times: 'I think people, the voters, want low crime. They don’t want kids to kill each other.'

Bloomberg had even supported it when a a federal judge ruled it violated the constitutional rights of minorities in 2013.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said the city police adopted a policy of 'indirect racial profiling' by targeting racially defined groups for stops.

'The city's highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner,' she wrote. 'In their zeal to defend a policy that they believe to be effective, they have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting "the right people" is racially discriminatory.'

And in 2012 he told the same church: 'There is no doubt those stops have saved lives. When you consider that 90 percent of all murder victims are black and Hispanic, there is no doubt most of those victims would have come from communities like this one.'

Four men sued the department in 2004, saying they were unfairly targeted because of their race.

Bloomberg told the congregation at the Christian Cultural Center, pictured, on Sunday that he wants to earn back the trust of black and Latino communities

In 2011 it was reported 87 percent of the 684,330 stopped by police were black or Latino.

Civil rights activist Shaun King tweeted: 'After years of running the Apartheid-like policy of stopping and frisking millions of people of color throughout New York City, and then defending it every day in office, then every day he was out of office up until this week, @MikeBloomberg now admits he was wrong.

'You defended it for a whole generation. Now you know you need Black votes and you have a change of heart.'

Bloomberg has qualified to appear on the ballot in Alabama and Arkansas. He poured $100 million into an online advertising campaign attacking President Trump.

'Little Michael will fail,' Trump told reporters outside the White House last week. He had been using that nickname for the 5'8'' Bloomberg ever since the former New York City Mayor endorsed Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016.