At the point that they have ordered you to unlock the phone, an investigation has begun, so if you do anything to the data on that phone, it could be considered destroying evidence.
Kind of in the same way that if the cops are searching your home and you try to flush some cocaine, they would consider that destroying evidence. But if you flushed cocaine the moment you saw cops on your street, that wouldn’t count as destroying evidence, because there was no investigation at the time.
At the point that they have ordered you to unlock the phone, an investigation has begun, so if you do anything to the data on that phone, it could be considered destroying evidence.
Kind of in the same way that if the cops are searching your home and you try to flush some cocaine, they would consider that destroying evidence. But if you flushed cocaine the moment you saw cops on your street, that wouldn’t count as destroying evidence, because there was no investigation at the time.
This person was on parole and got pulled over by the highway patrol. No investigation.