TORONTO

If Toronto Police want to look through his phone records, Mayor Rob Ford says there is no need to go through the trouble of obtaining a search warrant.

"I will just give them my cellphone," he said with a chuckle Tuesday night. "They can take it."

He says they will be listening to a lot of phone calls.

"They are going to need an army to go through them because I call a lot of constituents," he said, laughing. "They can drive around with me and listen to all the calls I make."

Ford said although he has not officially been notified, people close to him were given hints Tuesday that something may be coming down.

"I don't know if it's true, but I was told they are getting a search warrant for my cellphone and the OnStar in my truck," said the mayor.

Toronto Police did not comment on whether they went to a judge for a warrant to get Ford's phone records.

Media reports have highlighted how court records show police have put the mayor and his friend, Alexander "Sandro" Lisi, under surveillance in the past. Lisi now faces drug and extortion charges.

"They are probably listening to us now," said the mayor mirthfully on his way to the gym to "work out."

The mayor's information about search warrants comes just one day after Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux told Katie Simpson of CP24 his Project Brazen II investigation of the mayor is "very active" and that there was still "a lot of work to do."

He also said: "My mandate is to investigate any criminality by the mayor or the mayor's office and that is active and continuing ... directed to me by senior command officers of the Toronto Police Service; to take the investigation in any direction that it goes involving criminality, the mayor and the mayor's office."

The mayor called the comments and the top-down investigation "over the top" and insisted that neither he nor anybody in his office has committed crimes.

Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, said he did not want to comment on something that was not official, but said that "every day" seems to be a "roller-coaster ride."

Ford said he is taking it in stride what he believes to be an attempt to take him out politically.

Toronto Police have said they are merely following an investigative trail that flows out of what was learned in last summer's Project Traveller investigation.

In the end, said the mayor, obtaining search warrants for his phone will be an exercise in futility.

"They got to do what they got to do, but they can search until the cows come home because I have done nothing wrong," said Ford. "They will realize how hard I work. I call constituents and deal with their problems."

In fact, he said, there must be something more important police could be doing with their time.

"It's a waste of taxpayers' money," said Ford, adding it's all about getting police commanders' choice for mayor elected. "They want to get their boy in. I think they should let the voters decide."

Ford says if voters pick him in October, he'll ask senior commanders about how much "money" they have squandered on their investigation of him.