A word of warning before you set out, mobile scanners are illegal in New York.
If you wish to become an Amateur Radio operator in order to operate Amateur Radio fine, but just to make a scanner "legal" must be the worst possible reason with EMCOM a close second. A ham rig is not a scanner and a scanner is not a ham radio, the law recognizes the difference and treats them accordingly. The short of it is in states where mobile scanners are illegal you can't listen to PS frequencies on a ham rig either. There is no such thing as "Amateur exempt" in the sense most people think, it's the transceiver's receive capability that's exempt, not it's use. That means whatever you use to receive PS frequencies Amateur license or not you have broken the law, period.