2 cops face probe on howthey got gun

Two Chicago Police officers are under investigation for allegedly fabricating a story about how they got a gun on the West Side, a law enforcement source said Wednesday.

The officers have been placed on desk duty while the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs looks into the circumstances surrounding a traffic stop that resulted in the cops recovering the gun in early December.

The officers are suspected of lying on a police report about how they obtained the weapon.

“Rule 14” violations for lying are being taken seriously by department leaders — and sometimes have led to officers getting fired — because defense attorneys can later use the violations to question an officer’s truthfulness in court. Three officers were fired for lying last year, records show.

The two officers pulled over a driver for a suspended license, a source said. They brought him to a police district on the West Side and told him they would let him go if he told them where they could find a gun, the source said.

The driver called a relative and said he needed a gun to get out of police custody. The relative — who legally owned a firearm— was told to place it under a garbage can at a certain location. The officers recovered the gun and let the driver go, the source said.

Then they completed a report that falsely said they learned of the gun from the driver during the traffic stop and acted on his tip. The report did not mention the driver calling his relative to plant the gun under the garbage can, the source said.

The relative later called the police department about the gun, triggering an investigation, the source said.

Police officials would not talk about the incident, except to confirm an investigation is continuing into statements that two officers gave about a traffic stop and gun recovery.

“While we are not able to discuss additional specifics as this is an active and open integrity investigation, the allegations against these officers are extremely serious,” Interim Police Supt. John Escalante said in a statement.

“The officers in question have been removed from operational roles and their arrest powers have been suspended as our internal investigators corroborate the facts of this allegation,” the statement said. “The Chicago Police Department has zero tolerance for any activity which undermines the integrity of this agency or the public trust that we work so hard to earn.”

In July, former police Supt. Garry McCarthy moved to fire an officer for allegedly lying to investigators about his involvement in a shooting.

After McCarthy took that step, he sent a letter to the rank-and-file, saying: “Please know that an officer’s credibility is one of the most important attributes in this job, and integrity is at the core of our ability to effectively police our communities.”