On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and state authorities in Missouri reached an agreement that members of the public and journalists are within their rights to record on-duty police officers. Protests in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, MO have continued throughout the weekend, sparked by the police shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

The outrage was flamed by the authorities' tone-deaf response in the first few days of the protests, when police wearing riot gear used tear gas and military-style vehicles to force protesters to disperse. During that time, several protesters were told to cease videotaping police activity and arrests were made including Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly.

Politico was given a copy of the agreement by the ACLU. The news site reports, “The St. Louis county government, the city of Ferguson, and the superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol all acknowledged in a Friday agreement that both members of the media and the public at large are permitted to record events so long as they are not interfering with the duties of the police.”

The same three state authorities were named as defendants on Thursday in a District Court case that the ACLU brought on behalf of Argus Media Group reporter Mustafa Hussein. While Hussein was at a protest on Wednesday, police told the crowd that they were not permitted to record the police. According to the complaint, “over a speaker, police officials implementing Defendants’ policy ordered everyone on the street to stop recording. Upon hearing the order, Plaintiff was required to choose between surrendering his First Amendment right to record the action unfolding on the street before him or risking arrest or serious bodily injury inflicted by law enforcement officials if he continued recording and exercising his First Amendment rights.”

While numerous courts have affirmed the right of the public to record police activity, protection of that right is inconsistent throughout the nation, and law enforcement is often in a position to take advantage of the uncertainty. Earlier this month, a Sacramento officer argued in court that he was right to delete a recording off a woman's laptop because she was on searchable probation.