CHICAGO — Four Chicago police officers were stripped of their police powers and placed on desk duty last week amid an investigation into the documentation of guns recovered on the street, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

The investigation centers around the officers’ procedures in documenting firearms that were taken off the street while the officers were on duty, the source said.

The four officers were assigned to the Calumet District on the Far South Side, the source said. The district spans the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods.

A representative for the Chicago Police Department declined to comment.

In a statement, Ephraim Eaddy, the first deputy of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, said: “COPA is actively investigating the actions of the involved officers and made a recommendation to the Chicago Police Department to relieve the officers of their police powers.”

Those who have worked to rebuild trust between CPD and the community said these allegations certainly don’t help the effort.

“We don’t know the specifics details of this particular investigation, but when you hear reports that guns were improperly inventoried or went missing, it can lead to all sorts of questions,” Shareese Pryor, the director of police accountability at BPI, said. “There’s a history of those who have talked about experiences of guns being planted on a person or at a crime scene in order to implicate a person. When we hear these kinds of stories, it can cause people to have these gun drops they’re called rise up to the forefront of their minds.”

Pryor helped negotiate the consent decree to reform the department.