A Portland police officer caught on an iPhone video using a racial epithet during a confrontation with a young African American man now faces an internal affairs investigation.

Portland resident Yasmin Talic recorded the Central Precinct officer using the slur to address one of his friends outside the XV bar in October.

Talic said he called the Portland Police Bureau days later to file a complaint but got no response. So last week, he went public with the video, providing it to a local TV station. KGW and the Portland Mercury ran stories on it.

"I almost gave up. But I was like, 'I can't give up. I need to show this to somebody,' '' Talic said.

Police Chief Mike Reese, who viewed the video, pledged to investigate, but as of Tuesday, no one from the Police Bureau had been in touch with Talic or his friends, he said.

The officer who used the slur remains on patrol.

Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Tuesday the bureau began an internal affairs investigation after receiving a copy of the video last week from the media, but at the time, the bureau "had no information on when or where the incident occurred or who shot the video.''

Talic, 23, who works as an assistant manager at the downtown Portland Nordstrom, said he was out with two friends to celebrate his birthday between 11 p.m. and midnight Oct. 5. They had stood on a long line to get into the bar on Southwest Second Avenue, but a bouncer turned them away because one of Talic's friends was wearing a red patterned shirt. The bouncer told the young men that the shirt could be viewed as potential gang-related attire, the friends said.

Travious Shanklin, 23, who was celebrating with Talic that night, said they argued with the bouncer because they're not gang members.

Shanklin and the third friend are African American. Talic is white. The three all work at the downtown Nordstrom, had just gotten off work and were dressed in slacks, dress shoes and button-down shirts, Shanklin said.

Outside the bar, Central Precinct officers approached Shanklin and his friends, urging them to move off the sidewalk.

On the video, Officers Michael Hall and Heather Martley can be heard telling the young men to leave. According to Shanklin, Martley put her hands on his chest, saying he needed to go. He challenged her, telling her to get her hands off him and that he hadn't done anything wrong. Shanklin can be heard saying, "Don't push me.''

The words in the video are difficult to make out. Shanklin said he doesn't remember if he said the "n-word'' to his friends during the confrontation, but clearly recalls the officer using it.

The recording does capture one officer, Hall, saying it. Shanklin responds, "You ain't supposed to say that (expletive),'' and Hall replies, "But you said it to me.''

"For a police officer to say it to me was disrespectful,'' Shanklin said. "He was in full uniform, in front of a mass of people, in front of his peer. It was way out of line. That should not be tolerated at all.''

Talic, who was filming the encounter, also said he heard Hall use the slur.

"My two friends are black, and they use the n-word a lot amongst themselves, not to offend anybody,'' he said. "I wasn't sure if they said it first, but when I heard the cop say it, I was shocked. It was weird. It felt like the cop was instigating a reaction.''

Talic said he called the Police Bureau's non-emergency line two days later and asked what number he should call to file a complaint. He said he left a message with someone at the bureau. "I wish I could find the papers of the numbers they gave me. They said they'd call. No one called back. It was like a run-around,'' he said.

"In a situation like that, when it's the police that's kind of attacking you, who do you call now? It felt like we were helpless,'' he said.

The night of the confrontation, Talic and his friends walked away and went to another bar.

"That spoiled our night,'' said Shanklin, who is studying finance at Portland State University.

Hall, hired in July 2011, works the night shift at Central Precinct. He didn't immediately return a telephone message.

The Police Bureau's directive on courtesy says no member should use epithets or terms that denigrate any gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, ethnic or religious group, "except when necessary to quote another person in reports or in testimony.''

Constantin Severe, director of the city's Independent Police Review Division, said Tuesday that his office hadn't received any formal complaint about the video, but will monitor the bureau's internal investigation.

"You're not supposed to use words like that," Severe said. "It's not supposed to be part of the your tool kit as a police officer, no matter what the circumstances are. There's no valid reason for a person to be using those types of words.''

-- Maxine Bernstein