By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DOWNTOWN - Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas H. Streicher Jr. should not be responsible for deciding discipline for a police lieutenant accused of making a racial slur because the chief has used the same word, Vice Mayor Alicia Reece said Wednesday.

Streicher was counseled by then-Safety Director Kent Ryan after admitting to using an epithet in a 2000 training session.

"At that time I had some concern, and the community had some concern, because we set a precedent that the punishment for the use of racial slur is counseling," Reece told City Manager Valerie Lemmie during City Council's weekly session. "How can this person now come and put a tougher punishment, if it turns out this slur was used, on his officer?"

Lemmie said she would have the final say on discipline for Lt. Jeff Butler, whose 1999 comment on a videotape has prompted the investigation. At the end of questioning by the Internal Investigation Section about his use of overtime, Butler handed a key ring to another officer and uttered what sounds like a racial slur.

But the city manager is unwilling to say the slur was uttered until a complete investigation is finished.

To that end, she enlisted a local sound enhancement expert and a speech pathologist to watch the tape. Both said it was inconclusive. The next step is an analysis by a U.S. Secret Service audio laboratory in Washington - a process that could take two weeks.

Butler has declined comment.

But Councilman John Cranley said it was clear to him it was a slur. A debate about what Butler said serves no one, he said.

"There seems to be several versions of this videotape being passed out, dubbed at higher or lower quality. It seems to me that we are not served well with a bad copy getting on news stations, etc., because that invites debate about what was said. Frankly, it is not a close call if you look at a high-quality tape," Cranley said.

Councilman David Pepper said it's not an unimportant issue. With the number of homicides mounting - especially among African-American victims - witnesses and victims need to trust in a bias-free police department if the city is going to improve its crime rate.

Mayor Charlie Luken said he supports the city manager's hands-on investigation of the tape.

"I believe Valerie is on top of this, and everyone needs to follow her lead," he said.

Councilman Jim Tarbell said it was unfair to compare the Butler allegations to what Streicher said four years ago. "It was used in a sensitivity training program with members of the academy," Tarbell said. "You can say that wasn't a very smart thing to do, and I would agree with you, but it was not done in a malicious context, or out of meanness, or the context in which we see this currently brought forward."

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com