Add cell phones to the list of cutbacks at the San Diego Police Department.

About 200 officers have been asked to turn in their department-issued cell phones and PDAs to reduce the agency's $800,000-a-year cell phone bill by nearly $300,000.

That will result in about 475 cell phones remaining in the department to be used by officers, detectives and supervisors from various units who work on-call.

"The reality is everybody has to do things more efficiently and smarter as time goes on," Assistant Police Chief Bob Kanaski said. "We're in that position where we really need to be creative."

The move is the latest in a series of cuts to solve the city's $179 million budget shortfall. Other reductions include eliminating the horse-mounted patrol unit, moving some K9 officers back to patrol, slashing police fleet expenses by $1.2 million and laying off 81 civilian employees.

The department has more than 1,800 sworn officers.

"We understand the city needs to cut," said Lt. Jorge Duran of the Street Gang Unit. "The budget situation is affecting everybody."

Duran said his gang detectives will get to keep their phones, but members of the uniformed gang-suppression team, which makes regular contact with gang members, will likely have to give up theirs.

"Over time, it becomes part of the equipment you need to do your job. For it not to be there anymore, you have to rethink how to mitigate that," Duran said.

Not having cell phones will affect the team's ability to call parole and probation officers after-hours in the field to check gang members' status and determine whether they are violating conditions of their release, Duran said.

Officers also rely on cell phones to avoid talking about sensitive tactical issues over the radio, which can be monitored by the public and sometimes by criminals.

"In sensitive cases like homicides, it's critical to maintain operational secrecy," Duran said. The team is considering applying for grant money to get back some of the phones.

Many units, such as sex crimes, financial crimes and auto theft, will be given pool phones that can be shared among officers while on duty.

Chula Vista police went through a similar cell phone reduction about a year ago and prioritized the officers who absolutely needed cell phones, Chula Vista Capt. Gary Wedge said.

San Diego police Capt. Chris Ball, who oversees officers in the Northern Division, which covers areas such as Carmel Valley and Pacific Beach, predicted the cuts will have a minimal effect on police operations.

"Most people have their own cell phones anyway that they are not reluctant to use," Ball said. "I think we all recognize that the cell phone today is kind of an essential piece of equipment. Having said that, I think that we've gotten along a couple thousand years doing pretty well without.

"I've been a cop for 25 years, and I can't remember a big emergency where I needed a cell phone," Ball said.

Old-timers in the department remember that in the 1970s and 1980s, officers could go to any of the San Diego Trust & Savings banks and use a special locked phone. Each officer had a key that opened the phone boxes.

"I still have my key," Kanaski said. "No matter what beat you were working, there was always a San Diego Trust & Savings around."

The bank spent close to $50,000 installing the telephones near ATMs and paid a monthly phone bill of about $2,600. The phones were the brainchild of the former bank president, Thomas Sefton, a law enforcement supporter. The bank was sold in 1993.

Public pay phones were also plentiful back in the day. It wasn't uncommon to find a handful of dimes in the same pouch where officers carried their six-shot speed loaders for their revolvers, Ball recalled.

When cell phones began to catch on, officers for a while could use their personal phones to dial *51 to get patched through to the Police Department for free.

In 2006, the department launched an initiative to put PDA phones in the hands of some officers on the street. The personal digital assistants, which cost the department about $300 apiece, were used to verify the identity of suspects, listen to radio calls and view and send photos, including mug shots.

The devices were especially helpful to officers on bikes or horses who didn't have access to laptop computers. Motorcycle officers have since gotten computers, Kanaski said.

The effort helped the department earn the top spot in Computerworld magazine's ranking of private and public businesses using technology to mobilize field workers in 2007.

Now, more officers will have to learn to deal with the situation like Detective Gary Lawrence, who was never assigned a cell phone as part of his duties at the Southeastern Division, which includes the Lincoln Park and Skyline neighborhoods. If he wants to communicate with his team in the field, he often uses his personal cell phone at his own expense.

"I don't call victims on it because I don't want my number out there to the general public," Lawrence said. "When I'm not in the office and am in the field, if a victim is calling me, I won't know until I get back. And then you play phone tag."