If you could, would you disappear? Have you ever thought about where you would go or what you would do?
A premise I have contemplated more than once over the years, evading law enforcement is a true battle of wits because Sherlock is bringing more than just intuition to the table these days. Never was this clearer than during the American reality TV series, Hunted, titled after the British TV series of the same name. The series ran on CBS from January 22 to March 1, 2017, and for those who didn’t catch it, the show was a reality competition series focused around nine teams of two competitors trying to evade capture for 28 days. Contestants were limited to traveling within a 100,000-square mile radius in southeastern America. A grand prize of $250,000 was awarded to the last team still standing free at the end.
Why this show only lasted one season I’ll never really know but I thought it was fantastic.
I’m not saying it made me want to plot any criminal activity or anything, but I did find it fascinating to see all the privacy invading toys at our law enforcement’s disposal.
Say you manage to successfully disappear; the show calls into question where one goes for shelter. When tracking anyone—the innocent and criminal alike—your entire life is stripped bare by those searching for you. Contestants on the show proved this by attempting to find refuge with old friends or on properties they believed with confidence there was no way law enforcement could trace to them.
Many contestants tried to stay off the grid but as soon as they surfaced, BAM! Capture!
Another concern is money.
While on the run, you are definitely going to want some walking around money and contestants were able to remove funds from ATMs—but every time it was a chance for capture!
As soon as competitor’s hit an ATM, law enforcement immediately pulled all video surveillance from the ATM and all surrounding businesses and nearby homes usually within a quarter mile of the money machines location. In the right city, contestants could be tracked from camera to camera throughout the whole city.
Through the show we learned law enforcement can observe our cars travel by tracking our license tags movement across cities, towns, and along every major highway in-between, mainly through a hi-tech inter-agency software known as FLOCK.
Here is some interesting info from Wikipedia describing the FLOCK system: “Founded in 2017, Flock operates such systems under contract with law enforcement agencies, neighborhood associations, and private property owners. As of 2025, Flock says that it operates in over 5,000 communities across 49 U.S. states, and perform over 20 billion scans of vehicles in the U.S. every month. Flock Safety’s network of cameras, utilizing image recognition and machine learning, can share data with police departments and can be integrated into predictive policing platforms like Palantir.”
Another bubble burst by the show — we learned law enforcement can, in fact, trace burner phones when connecting to public wifi or making calls in open areas.
Back in the old days if you didn’t like your life, you could just pack up and head on over to the next town—“Hi, my name is Brenda,” but now, not so much.
Do you think you have what it takes to successfully disappear?