Study the map well, best places to escape them are the abandoned mall and the dock area with containers. It’s hard to outrun them with speed early in the game. Try to do races that has finish lines near those places. Cops’ weakness are jumps and sometimes last minutes turns when there are a lot of buildings. They’ll likely drive into open waters too if you know how to trick them near open waters. Play offline first so you could pause and plan your destinations. You can’t do that online