Summary
TheGrand Theft Auto 6trailer has a detail that may indicate that cops could be a lot tougher to spot, making it harder to get away with committing crimes. The potentialGTA 6addition could add a real-life tool the police sometimes use to avoid detection, meaning players may need to be much more mindful of their surroundings while committing crimes in the game.
TheGrand Theft Autoseries has come a long way over the decades, including how it handles wanted levels and police AI. For example, in some of the early games, even players who gained a full six-star wanted level could easily avoid the police by hiding in certain areas that were inaccessible to the cops and waiting for the wanted level to drop. As the games progressed, this became much more difficult, as the NPCs were given improved pathfinding. However, judging from thelatestGTA 6trailer, the upcoming game may make it harder to avoid detection in the first place.

As YouTuber Obvious Malcolm has pointed out, the secondGTA 6trailer includes a scene at about 0:47 where Jason drives by an in-progress arrest. The interesting discovery is that the black car parked further down the road initially looks like a normal vehicle, but when Jason gets closer, ghost decals on the police car suddenly become visible. In real life, these decals allow cop cars to meet the guidelines for being marked, but those marks are nearly invisible until light reflects against the decal. The theory is that these cars may be presentoutside of cutscenes inGTA 6, and could be lurking all over the map, potentially watching what a player is doing while looking like a run-of-the-mill NPC car.
Avoiding Detection in Grand Theft Auto 6 Could Get Tougher
If this turns out to be the case, in theory, players could find themselves immediately getting wanted levels due to their crimes being witnessed by police. It could also mean having to deal with the law tailing the player from the moment they gain a wanted level. Comparatively, if a playergains a wanted level inGTA 5without being spotted by police, nearby cops will begin searching the general area for them from scratch, giving players time to try and hide and avoid detection.
Rockstar has revealed that theGrand Theft Auto 6trailer was a combination of cinematics and gameplay, so at this point, it’s not clear if this detail will actually be an active element of the game, or if it’s purely limited to cutscenes. However, Rockstar has made some pretty big promises aboutGTA, with theCEO of Take-Two even saying thatGTA 6’s delayswere because the studio wants to make it the “best thing anyone’s ever seen”. While not a guarantee that a new mechanic like this would be included, players can likely expectGTA 6to integrate gameplay mechanics and new NPC behavior that’s never been seen before in the series.