Perhaps I was too abrasive, but part of it IS for your own good if you are making the investment. One thing, you will need to make sure to get an antenna tuned to the proper frequency range or you will fry the radio from high SWR. Simply put, the electrical relationship between the radio and antenna. Most amateur frequency range antennas will NOT be properly tuned for public safaty bands.
Personally if I were one of you guys, the radio that fits your needs is the Alinco DJ596. Dual band, can be modified to do up to 8 watts (adjustable power anyhow), BNC antenna mount (I'd recommend an Icom FA-1443B antenna for public safety...it is a ham antenna but I've used it on Standard equipment with decent SWR), digital board option, and very easy to use. Yaesu has sub-menus and sub-sub-menus and are not easy to program for a beginner.
Other radios to consider are Bendix King keypad-programmables (just being phased out by the military) and the Motorola JT1000 (basically a keypad-programmable HT1000).
Best of luck!