A huge part of the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski’s arrest last month stemmed from its confounding circumstances: Why 31 years late, and why in Switzerland?

As it turns out, e-mails show that Swiss authorities tipped off the US federal officials that Polanksi would be traveling to Zurich to collect an award. But that still doesn’t explain why the arrest took so long, and why it was such a covert operation, many details of which are still cloudy. Was Polanski just really good at hiding from the police?

Supporters of Polanksi continue to be outraged over his arrest, many of them citing the seemingly arbitrary choice made by US and Swiss authorities. Joan Shore, co-founder of Women Overseas for Equality, wrote on Huffington Post: “Arresting Roman Polanski … was disgraceful and unjustifiable. Polanski, now 76, has been living in France for over thirty years, and has been traveling and working in Europe, unhindered, but the Swiss acted on an old extradition treaty with the U.S. and seized him!”

But Polanski’s ability to travel and work in Europe “unhindered,” without being seized for arrest for an entire three decades could have a lot more to do with his own caution than the Europeans’ carefree attitude toward his crime and arrest. US officials say he’s been on an Interpol “wanted list” since his initial conviction. And it seems the filmmaker's been highly cognizant of his status -- Polanski hasn’t entered the states in over thirty years, he avoids going to Britain, and has remained in France, where he’s been protected by the country’s limited extradition with the States.

So the confounding Polanski arrest might not be the result of a rash and unfair decision by US authorities, but rather the result of the director’s very skilled, very well concealed attempts at hiding himself – attempts that successfully gained him 30 years of freedom.