In 2025, traffic stops can look a bit different than 10 or even five years ago. Your insurance card, and maybe even your driver’s license, is on your phone, not in your glove box. You tap your screen, scroll a bit, and hope the officer doesn’t notice the fifteen unread texts from your group chat. But a recent federal case shows how that simple moment can go sideways when the wrong person is wearing a badge.

A former Missouri police officer named Julian Alcala admitted in court that he used traffic stops as opportunities to look through women’s phones.

Florissant, MO police officer steals nude images from at least 20 women’ s phones

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said he told multiple women he needed their phones so he could grab their insurance information.

Instead of letting them just show him their screen, he took the phones to his squad car.

Once he had the devices, he secretly searched their photo galleries for nude images.

If he found something, prosecutors said he photographed it with his own phone. He even forwarded a victim’s video to himself and tried to delete the evidence.

One victim noticed the forwarded video and contacted the FBI

Investigators later found images of 19 additional victims in the police officer’s cloud storage. 

Alcala, who is 30, pleaded guilty to 20 federal counts for violating people’s constitutional protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Each count carries as much as a year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine. He will be sentenced on March 11, 2026 and remains free on bond.

The case rattled a lot of drivers in Missouri and kicked off a fresh round of questions about what police can and cannot ask for during a traffic stop

FOX 2 interviewed a St. Louis area attorney along with retired St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch. Both of them explained that drivers never, ever have to hand over their phones.

They said drivers can instead show the screen and let the officer take a photo of the insurance card. If that’s still too uncomfortable, they can just provide a paper copy if they keep one in the glovebox.

I’ll add that if you’re not someone to keep images like that on your phone, you still have things to worry about. Bank information, personal text messages, emails, etc. might live freely in your device.

Fitch offered one more piece of advice

If an officer insists on taking your phone without a warrant, he said you should use that same phone to call 911 and report what’s happening.

The Florissant Police Department responded to the case and said Alcala’s actions do not reflect its values or its officers’ professionalism.

Traffic stops already put people on edge. Knowing your rights at least keeps one part of the encounter in your control.