While state prison officials plan to move tens of thousands of inmates to county jails in a highly publicized budget move, they began another money-saving effort last month: removing GPS tracking devices from hundreds of paroled gang members.

Corrections officials had been monitoring about 950 gang members statewide through GPS, but budget cuts are forcing them to cut the number to 400 by July 1, said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"We have to make some difficult choices," Hidalgo said. "Obviously, during better fiscal times, we would work to increase those numbers once again."

The reductions, which are saving the state $6 million, include the removal of tracking devices from 40 of the 60 gang members monitored in Sacramento County. The cuts come at a particularly difficult time for local law enforcement agencies, especially the Sacramento Police Department, which is disbanding its gang unit next week.

"We're not going to have any gang detectives in a week," Officer Laura Peck said, adding that the 14-member unit is being shifted to other duties because of impending layoffs.

"Hopefully, the community is watching and the community can call us if they see any type of suspicious activity," she said.

Sacramento County sheriff's officials said they also were concerned by the move, which reduces their ability to tie gang members to crime scenes.

"Obviously, it's kind of frightening," said Sgt. Kris Palmer, head of the department's gang suppression unit. "It's frightening to all of us, to citizens in the community."

Palmer said the GPS program allowed deputies to determine if a gang member had been in the area of a crime for which he was suspected, and that detectives used the technology last month to find a burglary suspect.

But California's economic woes have resulted in public safety cutbacks in virtually all areas.

The corrections agency is hoping to shift responsibility for tens of thousands of low-level, nonviolent parole violators to county jails under Gov. Jerry Brown's "realignment" plan, but there is no money for that until lawmakers and the governor agree on a budget.

The department is under pressure to reduce inmate populations because of last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that inmate populations must be reduced by about 33,000 inmates.

Corrections officials also are scaling back how they watch parolees serving time in home detention. Currently, 1,700 parolees are monitored to ensure they do not leave their homes after curfew, but that program is being trimmed to 500 inmates to save money.

GPS technology long has been lauded as an effective way of keeping track of potentially dangerous parolees, but it is hardly foolproof.

Phillip Garrido was monitored by a GPS device for about 17 months during the years he held Jaycee Lee Dugard captive, but parole agents never investigated why he was spending large amounts of time in the rear of his backyard, where Dugard lived, and the agents never responded to hundreds of alerts that the device was not working.

The GPS gang monitoring program is relatively new, Hidalgo said. It started last year and officials are hopeful that in the future it may be expanded when budget conditions improve.

Corrections officials emphasize that the 7,550 sex offenders who are monitored by GPS are not having their devices removed.

"We want to maintain monitoring sex offenders on GPS," Hidalgo said.

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