If you are a fugitive, you must know how to avoid capture by the authorities. To avoid arrest and conviction, you must devise an ideal strategy with a new identity.
It is difficult to remain on the run and avoid arrest. You must be dedicated and willing to give up your family, friends, and all ties to your previous life with an ideal strategy. Assuming a new identity is always necessary to avoid, but it is not a guarantee that you will never be caught.
To avoid ending up like Benjamin Quinn, who was apprehended in Bethlehem, Connecticut, after ten years on the run, you must be extremely skilled and consistent at being on the run.
How to evade the law without being apprehended
This publication is not intended to encourage evading the law, but rather to reveal what fugitives do to avoid becoming apprehended.
1. Separate yourself from your family in part.
It’s difficult, but your family is the law’s first priority when looking for you. Do not flee to a relative’s house, your girlfriend’s apartment, or your best friend’s house. The police will come to them for ideas on how to track your current location.
2. Avoid going to cities.
Cities are not the best places to hide from the law. Investigators will use video cameras found anywhere to track you down. Because some of these cameras use facial recognition technology, you may be revealing your hiding places to the authorities. Toll roads and bridges also use tag readers, video cameras, and other advanced tracking technology. You want to prevent the cameras from capturing your license plate if you have to use toll roads while fleeing.
3. Only use cash in transactions.
You cannot conceal your identity from law enforcement by using your bank statement, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, or credit card bill. Any payment method other than cash can reveal your identity. Assume you want to purchase/rent a home or open a bank account. You will require identification. Providing that ID will eventually expose your location. To avoid providing your real ID, you will need to learn how to forge documents. For example, if you’re renting an apartment, you can forge your pay stub to fool the landlord. When necessary, even a bank statement can be forged.
If you need to prove your birth for any reason, online tools make it even easier to create a forged birth certificate. If you are concerned that you will need, say, your bank statement as proof of something, you may need to forge it. The idea is that everything you do must be paid for in cash. If you must accept payment online, faking your ID is the best way to minimize your footprint.
4. Remove your digital footprints
If you truly want to avoid the law, you must abandon your phone and computer, they can very easily compromise your new identity. Your other devices, including your smart TV, Wi-Fi refrigerator, and Nest Thermostat, can reveal your location to the authorities. Any smart device in your new home (even as simple as the door-lock app and bulb) can track you down by leaving digital footprints. The data can be used by investigators to forecast your movements. Your digital devices collect data about you. When you go off the grid, you leave a digital trail that leads law enforcement to your hideout. Despite promising to anonymize your data, third-party marketing companies can pick up your device ID, track your activities, and even share the data with government agencies.
If getting rid of technology isn’t an option, you can take steps to reduce your carbon footprint. When surfing the web, you should use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), and never forget to cover your computer’s webcam. Going incognito prevents the browser from storing browsing cookies or caches. However, these are not foolproof methods and only serve to reduce your digital footprint.
5. Stop using social media.
Running from law enforcement necessitates avoiding social media, or at the very least, never signing up with your real ID. There will be no more pictures of you, and your existing accounts will be permanently suspended or deleted. When people become too comfortable with you, they can become sloppy. You don’t want to share photos of the few friends you make while hiding out. You also don’t want to appear in their social media photos because one photo can ruin your reputation and expose your new identity. Photographs may contain EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, which includes the date, time, and GPS location information.
6. Avoid taking public transportation.
Unless you can leave your home before the crime is discovered, public transportation can lead to your arrest. Your picture will be emailed or faxed to train stations, airports, and bus terminals. Remember that there are video cameras all over the place. Traveling in your vehicle or in the vehicle of someone associated with you also makes you more easily identified and tracked. Do not rent or purchase a car because you will require a driver’s license, which will be stored in the DMV computer in your name unless you have a new identity.
8. Become self-sufficient.
You give law enforcement officers the opportunity to see you whenever you require a place to stay, food, or a restroom. People generally enjoy talking and will turn you in if there is a reward for your arrest. It is not a good idea to contact anyone from your past just to check in and tell them what happened. You don’t really need your relatives, but if you must communicate with one, make sure you can trust them. The cops will continue to pursue you as if you were a debt collector.
9. Turn off all GPS devices on your device.
Your mobile phone Officers tracking your location can use GPS to determine your location. Even if you turn off your phone, it can still be activated and tracked. Burner phones are not perfect and cannot be relied on to remain anonymous. The GPS in your car can also reveal your location. It is permissible to flee in a vintage vehicle that lacks digital connectivity. A modern vehicle makes it more difficult to conceal your location, and if the vehicle has a lien on it, the lender is likely to have installed a tracker.
10. Create a new identity.
You could make your way to the West Virginia hills, live off the grid, and create a new identity for yourself. To survive being welcomed as an entirely new person wherever you choose to live, you would have to fake and forge a lot about yourself. Take out a loan in your real name. To determine your most recent location and valid/current contact information, law enforcement agents can conduct a soft hit or credit inquiry.
11. Take a low-profile job.
The money will eventually run out, so you must plan to make more or keep what you have. If you are forced to work, most employers will require some form of identification, including a Social Security number if you live in the United States. This means you must assume a new identity, beginning with forging your IDs. Companies will not consider you if you do not have a resume. To gain experience, you can begin by volunteering in areas such as search and rescue (firefighter, etc.) or charities.
Take local jobs instead of high-profile jobs. Jobs such as sales and trucking can provide you with enough money to live on. People around you will become suspicious if you become too shady in your attempt to avoid the spotlight, so have some sort of presence with your fake ID. better yet use a new identity.
