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To protest the Allentown Police Department's long history of brutality and misconduct, and to advocate for greater police accountability, Phil Rishel non-disruptively films Allentown police officers while standing on public sidewalks outside local police precincts. But Allentown police don't like the attention, and they haven't been shy about letting Rishel know it.

On March 26, 2024, when Rishel was filming outside an APD precinct, Officer Dean Flyte took offense. He got his patrol car from the adjacent parking garage and drove it out of the garage and onto the public sidewalk, aiming directly at Rishel. When Rishel escaped injury by positioning himself behind a concrete planter, Officer Flyte threatened to arrest and charge Rishel for filming and criticizing him. Shortly afterward, Sergeant Christopher Stephenson joined Flyte and told Rishel he would be arrested if he returned to film at the precinct.

When Rishel returned the next day and continued non-disruptively filming police activity, Sergeant Stephenson threatened to arrest and criminally charge him. Stephenson asserted that Rishel had no First Amendment right to film police activities, that observing and filming police from a public sidewalk could not be a protest, and that the police could ban Phil and bring criminal charges against him for being on the sidewalk, criticizing the police, and using curse words. Later that day, Sergeant Stephenson charged Rishel with disorderly conduct and loitering for his peaceful and non-disruptive filming.

The First Amendment protects Rishel's rights to record Allentown police in public and to verbally criticize their actions, even—and especially—with offensive language or curse words. By assaulting and threatening to arrest and charge Rishel for filming and criticizing him, Officer Flyte violated Rishel's First Amendment rights. As did Sergeant Stephenson by threatening and charging Rishel. And the City of Allentown is liable for Flyte's and Stephenson's actions because, although it is obvious its police officers will encounter citizens who record or criticize them in public spaces, the City and APD have no program for training officers about respecting and protecting citizens' First Amendment rights. The City’s deliberate indifference has enabled a pattern of police retaliation against citizens who film and critique police conduct.

On July 23, 2025, FIREfiled a lawsuit on Rishel's behalf, seeking damages from Officer Flyte and Sergeant Stephenson for how they treated Rishel and a court order requiring the City to  train its police officers to respect citizens' First Amendment rights to observe, film, and criticize them. ÃÛÖ­ÏãÌÒ's suit aims to vindicate Rishel's and other Allentown residents' ability to hold police officers to their oaths to protect and serve the public, not bully critics into silence.