The police have been in the game since September, but on 4 October they got the shape they have today.
Foot police always walk in pairs, and you see more pairs as your heat rises and at night. At high heat, and during the night curfew, roadblocks go up: cars are stopped and searched, and so are people on foot. Every stop ends in a search with a progress bar, and if you do nothing for seven seconds, you comply.
Or you try the third option: a bribe. It is cash only, and you set the amount on a slider between $50 and $5,000. The chance goes from 10 % at the bottom to 70 % at the top, and your heat does not change the odds. Moving that slider while an officer watches you is one of my favourite small moments in the game.
Getting arrested is never game over. Illegal goods are confiscated, you pay a fine, and you wake up in a cell the next morning. Since mid October you leave with a release form on a clipboard: your own booking photo, a list of what was kept, and a line where you sign with the mouse.