How to escape the police? | Activities and hints Watch Dogs Guide

Pulling the driver out of a vehicle may result in their calling the police.

Escaping from the police is an inseparable element of Watch_Dogs, because many of the actions that you perform, may result in getting targeted by the police force. Of course, you can attempt preventing that and it is worthwhile to avoid the following situations:

• Running around the city with your weapon out - a behavior like that may, unnecessarily, disturb passers-by. It is best to keep the weapon holstered at all times and produce it only if required by the current situation.
• Knocking down and killing the other people in public places - it is best to attack the other people only while exploring the interiors of buildings and enclosed locations, which the regular passers-by cannot access.
• Pulling drivers out of the vehicles that they drive and throwing bikers out off the bikes - depriving the driver of their means of transport may encourage them to call the police. It is a good idea to prevent, in such situations, the owner of the vehicle from calling the police, by dashing towards the caller and snatching the phone.
• Avoiding the locations in which news about Aiden's wanted status, is broadcasted - if you are not cautious, you may be recognized by a passer-by and then they will attempt alarming the police to your presence. The frequency that the news are broadcasted with, can be brought down, by improving on your reputation. This has been described in the chapter entitled Reputation.

Try to get away from the location where scanning is taking place, thanks to which you will prevent the pursuit from starting

If you have not avoided violating the law, that is when the process of locating Aiden starts. This is symbolized by the yellow circles that appear on the minimap. This is not it the end of the world, because you can prevent the pursuit from starting. First of all, you can try to get away from the yellow circles, but you need to keep an eye on the readings of the minimap, because there will be appearing more, nearby. An even better solution is to use one of the gadgets, i.e. Jam Coms, which will make it more difficult for the police to perform a reliable scan (more about gadgets in the chapter entitled (Crafting).

Avoid bumping into the elements of the surroundings and maintain high speed

The actual pursuit starts at the moment at which you failed to get away from the scanned location, whenever required by the mission or if you have committed a crime, with policemen watching. During the pursuits, it is a good thing to use fast, maneuverable vehicles. It is not always possible to pick the vehicle that you want but, if you are expecting that a pursuit may result from your actions, you had better get an appropriate car beforehand. Right after the pursuit starts, focus mainly on flawless driving, especially that Aiden cannot conduct fire while driving/riding.

The key to end each pursuit is to escape from the sight of the police and in a discernible way, this is where hacking may help. You can, for example, hack into traffic lights, raise drawbridges and raise poles, just like the ones in the screenshot. All of these actions will be effective at slowing the police cars down. Apart from that, you can attempt damaging the chasing cars, e.g. by performing a hack whenever they pass by a hot steam pipeline (such actions are called neutralization). You need to remember about two things here. First of all, many of the advanced hacking actions become available only after you unlock certain abilities so, see the chapter entitled Abilities. Secondly, successive hacking actions may drain the battery of your smartphone so, use them with care, e.g. only if you are sure that a given action will make it more difficult for the police to continue the pursuit.

You can hide in a side-alley and wait for the police to lose their interest

Disappearing from the vision of the police activates the last part of the pursuit, i.e. the phase of searching. Ultimately, you can end the pursuit in two different ways. The first option is driving outside of the grey circle that you can see on the minimap and it is a better option, if you are driving a sufficiently fast vehicle. An alternative option is to wait until the search ends, in a safety. In this case, I recommend that you stop the car in a side-alley or in an underground parking lot. Additionally, you can hide in the car (by pressing an appropriate key/button), but this will not save you, if a police car approaches Aiden's car. It is not too good an idea to go for this variant, if there is a police chopper involved.

Note - not necessarily, the end of the pursuit means that the police forgot about Aiden altogether. The bar, under the minimap indicated the current level of the police interest and it can still be filled up. This means that the pursuit will resume, if you approach the police forces again. Definitely, the best way to reset the bar is to return to a hideout and rest.