Same goes for General and Extra, so I'd recommend considering going for all three in parallel.
Some US states have laws against having and/or using a scanner to monitor police or emergency services frequencies while driving. For example, in New York you cannot equip a motor vehicle with a receiver that can receive frequencies allocated for police use. There are similar laws in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, and Minnesota.
The FCC, however, has ruled that Federal law preempts state laws in this area in the case of a licensed ham radio operator using a radio that can incidentally receive frequencies outside of the ham bands.
For example, I have a Kenwood TH-F6A [1], a handheld transceiver for the 144/220/440 MHz ham bands. In addition to those ham bands, it can also receive on 0.1 - 1300 MHz (minus some bands in there assigned to cell phones). Since I have an Extra class ham radio license, I can go ahead and listen to police frequencies that fall in that range even in my car in those five states.
Haven't most services switched over to encrypted Public 25? How much is still accessible?
Power tools require care; you could know how to use them without the license, but if you do know how the license is $15 and an easy evening test.
I suggest checking if there's a Laurel VEC test in your area first:
They're free and they submit results digitally to the FCC rather than mailing them off to ARRL HQ, so you'll get your ticket in a day or 2 rather than 2 weeks.