Best GPS for Police

[dkuz]

Hi, I have a Garmin C330 right now whose maps are about three years old. I decided that instead of getting the 2009 map update I am going to get a new GPS unit and give the old one to my wife.
I use my GPS mainly at work. I am a cop and I ussally enter in the destination on the fly. The thing I dislike about the Garmin is you have to input the City. I would like it to just put in the street or intersection without having to select the city. I also want to be able to program the unit to avoid certain streets when I select a route.
I am looking at the TOMTOM's (720/920) and perhaps the HP 310. Any other suggestions would be helpful. I wish they would put a "cop" mode on the units. I guess Taxi might be the closest thing. Thanks!

[Uncle Ben]

[Kayrac]

The only gps i've found that can do anything like this is the Dash Express

however it's big, bulky, and has alot of early stage issues

however whenever you goto enter an address, you have the option of hitting 'nearby', and forgoing all that city/state stuff as it uses your current location

the dash works well, however it's 400bucks, requires a 12$ a month fee

it again has quirks, but works basically well, the 12$ a month fee includes map updates, online yahoo search, software updates, and traffic updates

it won't avoid certain roads, however it will try to get you there the fastest way possible around traffic

but to do what you want of forgoing entering city/state(which btw is rather easy, state you just press enter cause it auto-selects the last state you entered, and city it auto-finishes for you, for example, near me, once i type 'ep' it automatically finds 'epping, nh') dash is your only option i know of


and avoiding streets is a no-go, only way to even consider it, is use tomtom's mapshare, but then the street is blocked for good, so it'll never route near it again

[gatorguy]

You don't have to enter a city on the Nuvi 700's at least. Just enter"all" in instead of "city", enter address number if you wish, bypass if you don't by pressing enter, then street, which will give you a list of matches close to your location. Like on the TomTom, you don't need to enter the entire street name. Entering "CYP" will find "Cypress" as well as any other occurances near you. Just pick from the list. For what you need it for, the TomTom might actually be more useful as there may be times you need to avoid certain highways (possible train traffic, high speed in congested areas). Entering the address will be a bit more problematic tho, as a city is required, unlike the nuvi. If you're not sure what jurisdiction the address falls under, it may return "Not Found". The other issue that occurs, at least here in Central Florida, is that the TA map (TomTom) is more likely than the Navteq (Garmin) to use the "official" street name rather than the locally known name (the one on the signpost). Entering "Combee Road" in Lakeland, Florida, for instance, doesn't find a match, tho the overhead street sign says "Combee Road". The TA map refers to it as State Road 33. I've noted the problem more than once.

[infama]

The TT will default to the last city mapped to, so should save keystrokes if you are always navigating in the same city. It is also great for route exclusion. Magellan may also qualify here.

The HP does not come with emergency vehicle routing enable in the stock versions, but Patruns has given me the idea of doing a simple mod to restore it (Option 4). Instructions just posted at the HP thread.

HP now has more possibilities than all except maybe Mio (which also uses iGo software in their older models).

[dkuz]

Ok, I was able to go to the store and play around with the TT. I do like that it saves your last city entered and that will save me some keystrokes. I am still looking for an HP 310 to play around with. What's the deal with map updates for TT or HP. From what I can tell with TT, you get free updates for a year and then you pay after that. Is the map correction thing free or do you have to pay for that. What about map updates for HP?

[infama]