A federal lawsuit, which cites arrests of people who recorded police confrontations or activity, was filed on Tuesday asking a judge to declare that people have a right under the First Amendment to film or record officers working in public places.

The suit was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on behalf of one of the people arrested, and seeks a permanent injunction barring New York City employees from retaliating against those who record them in public.

There have been federal rulings in districts covering Baltimore, Boston and Indianapolis, stating that recording officers in public places is protected by the Constitution, but the rulings are limited only to those districts. There has not been a decision recognizing that right in New York, said Norman Siegel, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit.

Mr. Siegel said he wanted the City of New York to use police training procedures similar to those that the Baltimore Police Department adopted after that city agreed to settle a similar suit, filed by a man who accused the police of seizing his cellphone and deleting a video he made of an arrest in 2010.