St. Louis, Missouri – December 4, 2025 – A former police officer from the suburban city of Florissant has confessed in federal court to a months-long pattern of abusing his authority by pulling over women, seizing their cellphones under false pretenses, and secretly searching for nude photos and videos.
Julian Alcala, 30, pleaded guilty on December 2 to 20 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, admitting he repeatedly violated the women’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped a separate felony obstruction-of-justice charge.
Each of the 20 counts carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Alcala remains free on bond until his sentencing, scheduled for March 11, 2026.
Between February 6 and May 18, 2024, while still employed by the Florissant Police Department, Alcala conducted traffic stops on 20 different women for minor violations such as speeding or equipment issues. In every case, he took their phones back to his patrol car, claiming he needed to verify insurance or registration information. Once alone, he opened photo galleries, hidden folders, and messaging apps specifically looking for intimate images.
In the first documented incident on February 6, Alcala discovered a sexually explicit video on a woman’s phone, forwarded it to his personal device, and then photographed a separate nude image displayed on her screen. Over the following three months, he repeated the same conduct with 19 additional women, using his own phone to capture copies of any compromising photos he found and, in most cases, attempting to delete evidence of his actions from the victims’ devices.
The scheme unraveled when the first victim noticed an unfamiliar outgoing text in her deleted messages containing the explicit video. She immediately contacted the FBI, which traced the recipient number directly to Alcala. Agents executed search warrants on his phone and cloud accounts and recovered dozens of illicit images taken from the other 19 women, confirming the full scope of the misconduct.
U.S. Attorney Jill McNeil described the case as a “gross betrayal of public trust,” emphasizing that the women had been lawfully driving when they were subjected to invasive, illegal searches by an officer sworn to protect them.
Alcala joined the Florissant Police Department in 2021 and resigned in June 2024 after the FBI investigation came to light. The department has since introduced new training on digital privacy, stricter protocols for handling personal devices during stops, and enhanced body-camera review procedures.
Victim advocates have called the case a form of technology-facilitated sexual assault, noting that many of the women now experience lasting anxiety about data security and hesitation to interact with law enforcement. Civil-rights organizations have pointed to the incident as part of a broader national pattern in which officers exploit access to personal devices during routine encounters.
While the guilty plea resolves the criminal case against Alcala, it has intensified calls for systemic reforms, including mandatory audits of any officer access to civilian phones and stronger federal penalties for public officials who misuse their authority to obtain or distribute non-consensual intimate images.
For the 20 women whose privacy was violated, the knowledge that their abuser will face prison time offers some measure of justice, but many say the experience has permanently altered their sense of safety during everyday traffic stops. As one victim told prosecutors through her attorney, “I thought the badge meant protection. Now it just means fear.”
