A crime scene getaway is the act of fleeing the location where one has broken the law in order to avoid apprehension by law enforcement. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes.

In some places, the very act of making a getaway from a crime scene is a criminal offense in itself, though it is generally viewed as natural behavior for a lawbreaker.

Vehicle

A motor vehicle

Motor vehicle

A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...

, commonly referred to as a getaway car, is frequently used by the offender to flee the scene of a crime. Getaway cars are prevalent in crimes such as bank robberies

Bank robbery

Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...

. Very frequently, but not always, a getaway car is stolen

Motor vehicle theft

Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...

 and is abandoned soon after the crime in hopes that the vehicle cannot be traced to the offender. While witnesses to the crime will often attempt to take note of the tags

Vehicle registration plate

A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

 or other important details of the car and report this information to law enforcement, if the vehicle does not belong to the owner and is quickly abandoned, a trace may not be possible without examination of forensic evidence. It may be possible, however, to identify the offender if an officer spots the offender in possession of the vehicle prior to its abandonment, or if a witness follows the offender to the point of abandonment, and observes the offenders tracks from beyond this point. Such civilian involvement, though, may be dangerous, and is generally not recommended by police departments.

In some cases, the offender may go to extreme measures to discard the getaway vehicle in order to hide his tracks. These may include dumping it in a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 or setting it on fire

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

. While this may not make solving the crime impossible, it can make the effort more difficult for law enforcement.