The three masked men filming people outside a post office in Havre de Grace last month now face harassment and disorderly conduct charges.

Havre de Grace Police said they received more than 34 complaints about the men, identified as Logan Patek, 19, of Aberdeen, Mikael Hill, 22, of Bel Air, and Garrison Ingram, 20, of Bel Air.

Residents reported scenes of fear at the North Juniata Street post office, according to charging documents. Postal workers let one couple who said they were harassed by the men behind the counter so they could leave through a back door, after the men allegedly blocked the couple’s path when they entered the building.

The men, who call themselves “First Amendment auditors,” record others in public spaces to ensure that freedom of speech isn’t encroached upon. Often, they are also trying to get a reaction out of people to post content online — such as in the case of the men at the post office, who posted a cut-up version of the encounters on their YouTube page “Freedom Frontier,” previously known as “Public Rights Patrol MD.”

Police originally said the men weren’t violating any laws, and posted a list of best practices when encountering such First Amendment auditors. But, police later determined “several laws were violated” and formally charged the suspects on Oct. 29 with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and harassment, according to court records.

Trial dates are set for mid-December. The three men stood outside the post office Oct. 25 from the time it opened until it closed and recorded people with their phones as they came and went.

“They claim to be testing whether a local government is complying with the First Amendment by allowing them to film freely on public property,” said Kristi A. Nickodem, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, who has written about the auditors.

Prior to the charges, the owner of the YouTube page wrote to The Aegis that the auditing is “to show others that a camera isn’t your enemy and unless you’re committing a crime, or doing something you shouldn’t, you really shouldn’t care about being recorded.”

“If we don’t use them, we lose them,” he wrote, in relation to his First Amendment rights.

Nickodem said, speaking broadly, the First Amendment doesn’t shield individuals from criminal consequences when their conduct otherwise violates the law.

“Courts have routinely recognized that there are limits to the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and other expressive activity that may be protected by the First Amendment, such as filming,” Nickodem wrote in an email.

Havre de Grace Police Chief Jonathan Krass previously told The Aegis that encounters with these men are nothing new for public employees, who have dealt with them in the past.

A mother, who asked to be anonymous, said her daughter was followed by one of the men in the Havre de Grace library a few days after the post office incident. Krass previously said there was an investigation ongoing about an incident at the library. No charges have been filed related to that incident.

In 2021, a man was charged for obstructing and hindering after filming a Harford Sheriff’s Office traffic stop. He eventually agreed to community service and an apology letter as consequence.

In 2019, a YouTuber named “Plainpotatoess” was charged with harassment and trespassing after filming videos on the street and in businesses in Baltimore.

“Courts ultimately have to balance the importance of an individual’s First Amendment right to film government officials with the government’s interests in restricting filming (which may in some cases include an interest in providing a safe, efficient workplace for employees to serve the public),” Nickodem wrote.

The owner of the YouTube page Freedom Frontier declined to comment on the case.

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