The Tenth Circuit tossed the officer’s argument of qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects law enforcement officers from being held accountable unless they break a “clearly established” law.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) agrees that the right to record on-duty police is protected by the First Amendment. In an amicus brief filed in this case, the EFF explained:

“Examples of interference abound. Officers have destroyed civilians’ devices, confiscated their devices and footage, commanded them to delete their footage on threat of arrest, slapped their devices to misdirect their recording, menaced them with guns, and detained or arrested them.”

Another tactic officers use is playing popular music in full blast. The idea is that social media platforms’ copyright filters will block the posting of the footage.