Posted: 3/1/2008 9:02:18 PM EDT
| Any dept.'s use GPS like TomTom or Garmin? I swear I saw a TomTom on COPS tonight. |
|
We recently got some of the high-end TomTom units for our ambulances. Overall, we are happy with them. The downside is that it takes too long to enter an address, partially because you are required to first enter the name of the town each time (voice-activated entry does not make it any faster). This is not a show-stopper, but it is a significant inconvenience. The upside? There are several. Once you do take the time to type in your destination it works surprising well for finding specific street addresses, and it is perfect for finding routes to pre-entered locations - in our case, trauma centers, which may be many miles away, and which we might be approaching from god-knows-where. It uses bluetooth to manage your cell phone for you, acting as a very nice hands-free unit. And of course, even without entering a destination, it always shows you where you are, so you never have to wonder if you missed a turn . One especially nice feature is the 'Where am I?" button. It tells you exactly where you are, in both plain language and GPS coords, i.e. "I am on route 26, three-quarters of a mile south of Foobar lane". Ths is ideal when you are the first unit to find that car accident somewhere along a rural road. |
| Its absolutely indespensible if you get into a pursuit and are flying down roads at breakneck pace without having the time to read street names. Most gps devices will speak out loud and tell you where you're at and what streets you're approaching. this helps when you're trying to drive, use the radio, and figure where you're at all at the same time. |
| I had a new driver using one the other day, We were both working in an unfamiliar district and he got us to all 8 calls easily. Pretty handy since the area is developing very rapidly and none of our maps are current, even our online stuff. The TomTom did its job very well, and it didn't take him more than about 10-15 seconds to enter the address. |
| Several of the rookie officers on my shift started using them. IMO it's stupid. You better learn the area you patrol. They seem to spend alot of time playing with GPS and texting and miss sooooo much stuff thats going on around them. I see bad wrecks and bad guys getting the upperhand B/C they are playing with toys. |
|
I work in a pretty condensed area, so 6 months on, I had nearly 95% of my area command memorized without looking at our GPS or street guide. For the guys in the North Area Command, they are in an area that is rapidly expanding and they all tell me that TomTom and the like work well for them. I have a GPS always running on my laptop (Microsoft Streets & Trips). I have never used it to get to or from places, but it's really handy for setting up perimeters, or like somebody else said, finding out exactly where you are in an unfamiliar area. My only issue with this particular program is that it's not updated often enough and occasionally it will show me driving through a big blank area. |