Dreams About Running and Hiding From Police

According to the standard online dream dictionary, the general dream interpretation of dreams about being chased, running away, and hiding from the police involves waking up from a sense of denial and essentially a fast-rising sense of personal awakening.

Let’s get one thing clear: if you have dreams about running and hiding from the police, this doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong or have committed a crime and are in danger of being found out or brought to justice.

While that realization might bring a sense of relief, you’re not completely off the hook yet.

Dreaming about being chased, running away, or simply hiding from authorities can indicate that you’re becoming aware of how you’ve been dealing with many pent-up and neglected issues in your life.

As you probably already know, running away is not an ideal solution, especially regarding your fears, insecurities, and guilt.

While most people could agree that stopping yourself on your tracks, looking around at whatever you feel that is chasing you straight in the eye is the ideal way to deal with things, very few people do that.

I can understand that because it takes a tremendous amount of courage, maturity, and personal awareness to do that.

Taking Personal Responsibility Can Be Discomforting

Let’s face it, when confronted with the consequences of their actions or the reactions of other people, most people take the path of least resistance.

We run away, and this takes many different forms.

We can blame others; we can craft one excuse after another.

There are so many variations of this, and few involve physically running away, but they all lead you to the same place: lack of resolution and lack of growth.

What’s going on here is the avoidance of pain.

When you’re running away from your issues, you’re running away from responsibility, and responsibility can bring pain and discomfort.

And a lot of this pain is due to the realization that you’re wrong or there’s something wrong with you or that you must improve, which takes a lot of work.

People don’t want to be bothered; most of them would rather stay with what they’re doing now, and that’s why many women stay in abusive relationships.

This is why many people who are otherwise physically grown and mature still think like children regarding past trauma and abuse.

It doesn’t take much effort to come up with examples of how people run away from the deep-seated personal life issues they should be confronting.

Make no mistake, we live in a society that prizes bravery and confrontation, although most people are cowards.

If you think about it, that’s why we hold such ideals in high esteem; they are ideals because very few people possess them.

These are the themes that run through and inform the dream vision you may have of running away and hiding from the police or being chased in your police dream.

What follows is a more detailed explanation of the different contexts of this action.

There are slight variations, but I’m giving you the general theme.

What Does Being Chased By A Police Officer In Your Dream Mean?

Being chased by a police officer in your dream can represent avoidance, lack of responsibility, stubbornness, and the unwillingness to grow up.

It can also indicate an almost childish portrayal of dealing with life’s many stresses.

Instead of allowing stress, pressure, and challenges to come and allowing yourself to step up, get beaten down a little bit, recover, and come out of it stronger, you’d rather turn around and run away or deflect blame.

This takes many different forms, but dreaming of running away, chasing, hiding from the police, or any other dream of evading the police is a representation of your unwillingness to practice patience and perseverance.

This, of course, gets in the way of your ambition and determination.

Standing your ground, confronting whatever is chasing you, and taking on the consequences of your decisions may be painful and lead to short-term losses.

But what you stand to gain makes the pain and loss worth it.

Is it inconvenient? Absolutely. Does it hurt from time to time? You bet. But is it necessary for you to go from being a little child to an adult? Absolutely.

There is no question about it, you must become an adult.

Evading the consequences of your decision or running away from your fears, or worse yet, avoiding the standards that others have set for themselves and you will only lead you to remain undeveloped and weak.

This is especially true when it comes to developing courage, tenacity, ambition, determination, patience, and perseverance, and other ingredients for life success.

The only way to stop being chased by the police is to stop the chase immediately.

Stop running, turn around, put your hands up, surrender, and then negotiate.

What Does Frantic Running In Police Dreams Represent?

Pay close attention when you run in your dream.

Do you sweat? Are you catching your breath? Is there an air of desperation in your steps as you try to get away from the police chasing you?

Can you see their faces? Can you hear their voices?

This scenario indicates that you are running away from or rejecting something big in your life.

It can be the 800-pound elephant in the middle of your mental room.

For example, if your parents abused you when you were a child, you may come up with one excuse or justification after another, which doesn’t make the central fact go away.

Similarly, if you’ve been abusing somebody or stealing from someone in one way or another, you simply don’t run out of excuses and justifications.

If you’re cheating on your loved one by watching porn or still communicating with an ex-lover on Facebook, you may come up with a comforting story of why this is perfectly okay.

But deep down, you know what is right; you know the consequences that can happen, so you put up walls and illusions, and these constitute “running.”

You are not dealing with things as they are.

You are not gathering enough moral courage to do what is right.

Often, what is right lacks pleasure, takes a lot of time and effort.

It is also quite painful because it involves your pride or breaking away from things you’ve grown accustomed to.

In other words, you have to set yourself aside, and most people are not prepared to do that, and I can’t blame them.

We are trained by society to feed ourselves first and use other people as sources of pleasure and resources to feed ourselves.

But let me tell you that if it is the downward spiral or feedback you bought into, you’re still going to be hungry at the end of the process.

It doesn’t matter how much you’ve eaten; it’s never going to be enough.

This is the endless spiral of spiritual addiction.

The porn, the side girlfriend or boyfriend, the excessive spending, the gossiping, the lying, and backstabbing are just manifestations of how you feed yourself.

The problem is you’re not feeding yourself with real food.

What is real food? Cutting back.

Interestingly, many spiritual masters attained their enlightened states not by eating and drinking some more but by stopping and allowing themselves to become fully awake.

They have nothing to feed or chase after; they just are.

This reminds me of the story of the Buddha.

After living a life of debauchery and screwing everything that was moving, he went on to the other extreme and fasted until he could feel his spine when he touched what passed for his belly.

He decided to give it all up and think about his life while sitting under the Bodhi Tree, and that’s when he gained enlightenment.

You may be looking for the same answer.

You may want to stop because running is not paying off.

What Does Hiding From Cops In Your Dream Represents?

Hiding can take different forms.

Many people believe that hiding means going into a structure because it supposedly obstructs the view of whoever’s giving chase, thereby protecting the one who’s hiding.

It’s one way to hide, but one common way to achieve the same effect is by putting up illusions.

In reality, they’re not hiding from somebody chasing them; they’re hiding from somebody more important.

That’s right, they are hiding from themselves.

One of the best ways to do this is to put up lies, exaggerations, and intentional confusions, so you don’t know what’s real anymore.

And since you’re confused, you feel that the problem that’s chasing you is no longer an issue.

You’d be surprised as to how many people hide this way.

Overcompensating Can Be A Form of Hiding Too

Similarly, people can overcompensate.

They think that if they get an emotional payoff doing something else or being kind or sacrificing themselves for other people, it makes up for the shortcomings they feel.

But the only person they’re fooling is themselves.

If you want a problem to go away, whether it’s an unresolved resentment towards your parents, unmet love, conflicted issues regarding your sexual orientation, and a wide range of other issues, the key is to stop hiding.

Tear down the walls because they are not doing you any good; they’re just shielding you from reality.

You’re just hiding in a cave of delusions.

If you really want to mature as a person and you want to be a complete person, you must stop hiding.

It’s not painless because letting go of one illusion or ghost that you’ve believed for so long is uncomfortable.

Often, your pride takes a hit, but it’s necessary.

The worst part of this hiding is you tend to pass it on; attitudes like certain diseases are infectious.

So if you are the type of person who prefers to hide on an emotional and psychological level, what kind of environment are you setting up for your children?

One delusion in a generation is enough.

What Do Dreaming of Police Officers Mean?

You have to pay attention to the context of your dream.

Often, dreams about running away from authority figures assume police officers.

When you dream of police officers, all sorts of things have to be assumed.

You’re running away from them because there will be consequences if they catch you.

This requires authority because no random person can chase after you and throw you into jail; they’re the ones who will go into jail for false imprisonment if they do that.

The first thing that comes to mind when we have night visions of police officers is authority.

The second is the legal use of violence.

There’s a group socially and legally designated to monopolize violence in every society.

Generally speaking, there’s the military to protect the citizenry from external threats, and there’s the police that protects us domestically.

They’re the ones who can carry guns, and if necessary, use those guns to preserve peace.

This is all given at legitimate imprimatur by the badges and serial numbers they possess.

When you see these people in your dreams where you’re running away, what you’re doing is you’re responding to authority.

There are different types of authority, and the usual police chase dreams we have indicate our response to moral authority.

You’re not running away because you did something whack, let’s get that out of the way.

Something in your daily life doesn’t line up with conventional moral authority.

Does this mean that it’s a bad thing? Not always.

Running Away From the First and Foremost Authority in Your Life – Your Parents

If you’re living your life based on your parents’ expectations, it can be a good sign that you’re running away from the police because it’s your life.

It would be a waste to live your parents’ lives because they had their chance; they had their shot.

Keep in mind that if you’re running away from the police in your dream and the framing involves parental authority, it assumes that you’re an adult.

It assumes that you’re running away from improper parenting.

For example, a father is absolutely correct to tell his son not to kill or rape or get a girl pregnant unless you’re married to her or lie and steal.

But suppose the parental authority you’re running away from involves suffocation where your parents try to live out their lives in you and crowd out your autonomy and identity.

In that case, you’re running away from the common parental idea that children are mere extensions of their parents and family traditions.

From that point, you have a choice, and you have to give yourself the right to ask if you agree with those values.

Ask yourself if you agree with those family traditions and if so, yes, then carry these traditions through, and there is no need to run.

But if you’re running away from police officers, it means you disagree.

Correcting Your Parents Can Help Them Grow

Sadly, we learn many of our biases from our parents.

They teach us who is in our “in-group” and who is in our “out-group.”

They teach us who to look up to and who to look down on.

You’re your own person, and you need to come to grips with your own morality, and if your parents’ values don’t fit that, stop running away.

Don’t look at this as something to run away from, but tell your parents what you believe through your actions.

You tell your parents that they should respect you if they love you.

This is how you contribute to your parents’ growth by not allowing yourself to become an automatic extension of their values.

If you allow it, you’re not doing yourself any favor, and it doesn’t improve your parents either.

You’re caught in this sad, pathetic play wherein, to their face, you agree with them, but in reality, you’re doing something else.

You’re running away from their authority.

Organized Religion Is Another Moral Authority

For a broader interpretation, replace parents with any other kind of authority.

It could be the church, your imam, or rabbi; it doesn’t matter.

This involves your attitude towards authority from a moral and spiritual level.

You have to forge your path.

If you think you’re going to hell if you don’t follow blindly, then you’re doing it wrong.

Real religion involves real faith, and real faith is not just a belief in a set of creeds; it’s living your life based on the things you say you believe in.

It doesn’t matter what holy book you read; it could be the Talmud or the Koran or the Hadiths or the New Testament.

Real religion involves faith, meaning you live out what you believe.

As Jesus Christ said, “I demand mercy, not sacrifice.”

He is saying that it doesn’t matter how many candles you light or how many times you crawl on your knees or say your prayers because those are formalities.

What matters is that you give to the poor until it hurts, put yourself last, seek to be understood later as you strain to understand first and that you truly love.

Other Meanings of Running and Hiding From the Police

In addition to external sources of authority such as religion and parental traditions, there is also such a thing as internal authority.

One of the main reasons people dream that they’re hiding from cops is that they feel conflicted about what they know now and their assumptions and expectations from the past.

It may not be obvious to you, but every human being is a creature of violence.

No, I’m not talking about someone who’ll smack you around if you look at them the wrong way.

I’m talking about internal violence in terms of how we see and experience things in the real world and how we assume things should be.

There’s always that clash, and we tend to build ourselves around our assumptions and expectations.

So when you see yourself running and hiding from the police, one alternative meaning involves avoiding dealing with internal authority.

Accept That Your Belief System Can Change

It may well turn out that a lot of what you’re seeing in your life in terms of your sexuality, views about money, how people should respond to money and abundance, and how you get along with others is going through a change.

For example, you’ve always believed that people should share and you’re a firm believer that from each, according to their ability, and to each, according to their needs, but now you realize that it doesn’t make any sense.

You may arrive at a point in your life where you realize that people can care for others if they’re getting paid.

In other words, self-interest is what makes products and services available, and that we’re able to create better lives for everybody through market competition.

And this is only possible through self-interest, also known as greed.

Now, there will be a violent clash within you if you’ve always thought that human beings are inherently good.

Believe me, this is a real thing because when I was in high school and college, I was pretty much a hardcore communist.

I couldn’t for the life of me understand why billionaires have so much extra cash while the rest are barely scraping by.

It’s only when I started owning businesses from one startup to another that I realized that the real hero of the story is the business person because he is the person that gets paid less.

He cannot cheap out on his employees because he has to pay them after they have produced their work.

And after the work is produced, it’s still a matter of time before the profit comes, so the entrepreneur gets paid less while assuming most of the risks.

It’s a good thing that when the payoff comes, it’s big.

But the risk is there might not be a payoff.

Fifty percent of businesses fail within the first five years, and they continue to fail if you stretch that timeline to twenty years.

My personal experience changed me from a hardcore socialist who truly believed that property is theft to the other extreme.

A part of me is seriously convinced that taxation is theft, but I still believe taxation is necessary.

I hope you can understand the violence here because it doesn’t involve people shooting each other or blowing up buildings.

The most intense form of violence is when your day-to-day experience starts to clash with things that you assumed was true.

So be aware of this and stop running and hiding from your moral authorities; question those moral authorities instead.

It is time to let go of the old ideas if things aren’t lining up with how you assume things to work.

I gave you an example regarding economic and political beliefs, but this applies across the board.

It applies to your understanding of the proper relationship between sexes and your relationship with your parents.

Allow yourself to be aware of this internal violence and shift your point of view depending on the values supported by your actual lived experience.

What Does Running From the Police Indicate When It Comes to Relationships?

When it comes to romantic relationships, running from the police indicates that you are either taking a passive role or an overly confrontational stance with a passive-aggressive bent.

The funny thing about relationships is that many people believe that you enter a relationship to “complete each other.”

This will be a problem because you can only give what you have, and if both of you are incomplete, how can you come to 100%?

You might be giving each other what you already have and trying to get from each other what you don’t have.

I hope you see what’s wrong with this picture.

The best thing you can do for a relationship is step up and mature before you get in.

Otherwise, it can devolve into a needy, codependent relationship where you try to prop each other up but end up feeding each other’s insecurities and vulnerabilities.

This is where a sense of inadequacy can become debilitating.

Running Away Can Be Harmful to A Relationship

When you see yourself running from the police, and you see signs and symbols of your relationship within that dream, it indicates that you and your partner may be adopting coping mechanisms that aren’t helping the relationship because you are confronting each other without actually doing so.

It’s much better just to lay all your cards on the table and say, “This is how I’m experiencing this relationship. This is what I’m getting out of it. These are the things you do that make me feel a certain way.”

You have to give her enough respect to let her give her side of the story, and most importantly, you must listen and be willing to sacrifice.

This is crucial.

Healthy Relationships Understand the Need for Sacrifice

A real relationship is not between you and your partner; a real relationship is all about your commitment to the third party formed when you entered into a relationship with that person.

That third party is the relationship; it’s bigger than both of you.

It requires commitment and dedication, and the big payoff is both of you mature.

That sounds idealistic, but that’s the only workable solution because most of us view relationships as contracts where you say to each other, “I want this from you, and you want this from me. I will perform only to the point where you’re giving me what I want. If you stop for whatever reason, then I’m not under any obligation.”

That’s a poor way to run a relationship.

Can you imagine children born in that kind of arrangement? It’s no wonder we’ve produced many, and I hate to say it, fucked up people.

Start looking at your relationship as a thing in itself worth dying and sacrificing for.

That’s how the relationship helps you mature.

Again, drawing from my personal experience, before I got married, I was very slack.

I only worked on projects if I thought they were fun.

Sure, I made a lot of money, but the problem was it wasn’t consistent, and I tended to blow a lot of money based on what pleased me.

And then I got married and realized that I’m responsible for another person.

That stabilized me and forced me to step up from a video game-addicted boy to a responsible man who can put in at least eight hours of work every day.

But things really changed in terms of my net worth, income, and goals in life when I became a father.

When I cradled my son in my arms and looked at him all helpless, and I saw in his eyes endless potential, I felt responsible.

I felt that this was a person I could die for.

So many stupid and fantastic ideas I may have in my youth went out of the door.

Instead, my focus became what is workable, scalable, and what I can work on every day to ensure a good future for my son because the stakes are high. I needed to step up and become a man.

You have to look at your relationship from this perspective.

Sacrifice is always a part of the equation. It’s unavoidable.

Dream Example #1

It opened up on a cool breezy night. I found myself returning from school in my uniform. It’s such an awkward time to be leaving school at past 8 pm, of course. Especially when you’re a high school teenager.

I strolled like I wasn’t in a hurry to get to my destination. Some shops had even started closing. That shows how unsafe the neighborhood is. By 9 pm, it would look like midnight. Now let me tell you why that is.

The nights before, we had heard of clashes between cult groups. Such gang wars oozed news of killings, robbery and rape. For sure, ice-cold fear gripped anybody still yet to get home before nightfall.

Now, look at me, parading the streets like the newly-crowned gang leader. Not long till I came across a black pickup van. The all-too-familiar siren lights overhead, glaring brightly.

“Stop right there!”, was the order from the police van. Just then, a police officer in black, swinging out his rifle, appeared. Yeh! I could hear my thoughts scream as I sighted the weapon.

Naturally, I would remain calm and explain how I was only returning from school. But this is how ridiculous dreams can be. I looked down at myself in shock. I was now donning a rugged army camouflage-like outfit. Like how?

Feeling like I was set up, I knew I had to take swift action. I’m doomed if I should yield to the police — One scapegoat for the many crimes in the past few days. I fled. Usain Bolt would sure be proud of me. Or maybe not. Because the policeman re-entered his vehicle and in seconds, was on my heels.

Ever found yourself running in the mud? My initial blistering pace soon slowed down like that. My legs felt like melting rubber. I could feel the engine of the van stirrup louder behind me. He was already within a distance of taking me out. “Why hasn’t he shot at me?”, the thoughts in my head, contemplated.

As another dream magic would have it, I soon found myself running down a flight of stairs. No police van rather, police officers were now on my trail. Panicking and scaling the stairs in fours and even fives, I managed to getaway. But the police never give up, do they?

They soon followed me to the lower parts of the building. At this point, stealth was the keyword. I tiptoed my way into a closet and hid amongst clothes. I could hear them in other parts of the house. They searched for me to no avail. Oh, I felt victorious!

It was getting close to an hour and I was still hiding. There was almost no sound anymore in the house. Save the noisy ceiling fan swinging in the room. So I tried to open the closet. Locked! Again, how? And I’m claustrophobic.

I began to sweat, thinking of the many deadly possibilities. Should I call out for help from the police I just escaped from? Or should I remain here and die of asphyxiation? As I started to pass out from the frenzied thoughts, my bedside alarm went off.

I woke up in my room looking at my closet with mixed feelings. I should discard that coffin!

Dream Example #2

It was a dark and quiet night. I could only hear our car loud as if it was a V6 engine car, similar to Dom’s car in the Fast and Furious movie. At least, that was how I described the car I was sitting in. The man next to me was speeding at his best.

Honestly, I didn’t know who he was, but he looked familiar and close to me.

He was bald with toned muscle arms and wore a white sleeveless t-shirt. I know, he looked exactly like Dom in his last movie. But, with darker skin and a short beard. More like Arab people. I didn’t have any idea who he was.

The way he drove, I could tell that we were in a rush or chasing something. Then, he looked at me with his fierce face and said, “Check the maps. Where must we take our next turn?” I just froze and stared back at him. He shouted, “What are you waiting for?” Then, I opened Google Maps and was trying to look for an answer to his instruction.

Then, I knew we were not chasing or racing; we were running from something. As I was thinking about what we were running from, I heard the police siren roared out of nowhere, and it was getting closer to us. Suddenly, my body slammed against the door. He took a sharp turn to the left and entered a parking building.

This time he drove very slowly, turned off the lights, and tried to parallel our car in a parking lane.

I gathered my energy and asked him, “What are we running from?” Then, he grabbed my neck and whispered, “If you just followed what I said, we will not be here hiding! All you have to do is to take that bag and wait in the coffee shop.”

He leaned back and sighed. I guessed I made a terrible mistake here, but I really didn’t know what it was. A second later, our car was surrounded by cops pointing their guns toward us. I heard a shouting voice, “Get out of the car and put your hands in the air!”

We were just looking at each other, but his eyes told me he wanted to step on the gas. I told him not to do that; we couldn’t pass them through. I couldn’t believe this! I could feel my ass fly out of my seat because he stepped on the gas and tried to run from the cops. Sadly, our car crashed and flipped over!

That last scene woke me up, and luckily, I was still lying on my soft and firm bed. I was all sweaty, and I think my heart was about to jump out of my chest. I guessed I was too excited after watching F9: The Fast Saga (2021).

Lying back to my bed, trying to get more sleep because tomorrow is my working day. But I can’t erase the silhouette of that driver, and I wonder who he was. Who knows he is someone that I know in my real life?

Dream Example #3

Most evenings I made it home a few minutes before curfew. I had to cash in the working hours as much as I could. I had to pay my bills somehow. I, however, stacked warm clothes, snacks and water just in case I couldn’t beat curfew.

This particular evening, I had just closed shop. Didn’t realize how late it was. Darkness had set in. the few people in the streets all seemed to be rushing somewhere. My car had a mechanical problem so it was at a shed being repaired. That left me with the option of a cab, bus or a motorcycle. None seemed to be working.

Must be because of how close it was to curfew. I decided to walk, it wasn’t that far anyway. I could only thank God that my children were at home. Premonition hit and I called home. Mother told me my children had bathed, were well fed and tucked in bed. She was knitting as she watched her game of bingo.

My heart was at peace, now I just needed to get home.

Not long after, the police car spotted me. I knew my goose was cooked. At the back I was huddled like a sack of potatoes. We were about twelve of us and one officer accompanying us.

At a high speed-the streets were empty- they drove towards the station. I was scared, hungry and tired. I texted mother to tell her I might be home late. I knew once we got to the station my phone would be taken away and she would worry if she couldn’t hear from me.

The gentleman next to me whispered in my ears ?if you stick by me, you have the chance to escape. I just need you to cooperate. Don’t stand out. The minute we arrive, there are a few minutes before they start booking us in. That is when we make a dash for it.

I have a relative who lives close to the station. We hide in a thicket for a few minutes- long enough to book the rest in and pack the van. Then we make the short walk to freedom? I was shocked and wondered why he would pick me. He might have sensed my mistrust because he told me to trust my gut, if it agreed I already knew the plan.

I thought of mother and the children at home and my gut trusted him- a total stranger.

The minute the van halted, the officer jumped out and went in leaving us un-attended. We silently jumped out and hid in between two parked vans. We waited until the others were ordered into the station front office. The officers on duty accompanied them to book them in fir the night.

He led the way to a thicket on the outer side of the station’s compound. When the coast was clear we walked into a compound not far from the station. He insisted it would be risky to make the journey home at that time since there might be officers on the road.

We were warmly received. More him than me. A hearty hot meal was served. I was offered a pair of warm pajamas and directed to the bathroom to have my bath. Just when I was about to turn the knob I jolted. I couldn’t be happier to be in my bed.

I went to check on my children and they were snoring the night away.