PORTLAND — The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Bar Harbor couple who were arrested after trying to film police officers in Portland.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday in the Hancock County Superior Court against Benjamin Noyes of the Portland Police Department says the couple’s arrest was illegal and unconstitutional.

The group says that Jill Walker and Sabatino Scattoloni tried to film an interaction between five police officers and a woman in May when they were told to leave or they would be arrested. The ACLU says the two were arrested after they asked the officer for the reason. They were charged with obstructing government administration, but the charges were later dropped.

The police department did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.