Is it illegal to film a police officer or security guard while they are talking to you ?

so when i watch videos of skaters on youtube being questioned or talked to by cops. the cops often say to turn the camera off. do you have to turn it off?

Police have made many arguments in favor of their right to ask people to stop filming or to confiscate video of their actions. They commonly claim that the person filming them is on private property without consent, obstruction of the officers duties, and the argument that it is a threat to the safety of the officers who may need to conceal their identity for undercover work.
I have yet to see one of thee arguments upheld in the courts. The courts consistently rule in favor of a persons right to film anything and anyone who is in a public place. They have no reasonable expectation of privacy even if they are a police officer.

Interesting question, because the answer straddles both law and ethics.

To explain, assume it is not a cop, just an average joe. You then have no right to film average joe if he says he does not wish to be filmed.

Now, add the cop thing to the mix and I believe it would depend on the jurisdiction you are in. Mostly, cops do not wish to be filmed because they are not in control of the situation. If it were me, being a bit of an anarchist, I would just film anyway. There ARE laws to protect me too as the filmer, depending on my use of the footage.

Yes you have the right to record, but you have to let the other person know that you are recording him/her. well the,ll know anyway if you are recording on video camera unless its hidden. Its not a bad idea to record conversations but with other persons concent. we work at private party security and we carry recorder all the time to record everything for later records. party security guards sometimes have to.
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a key aspect of any democratic society is that our system of government, both at the legislative (rule making) and at the executive (rule enforcing - eg policing) levels, should be transparent. Sometimes I'ved lived in societies where policing is allowed to be covert, that is policing is neither transparent nor accountable. These are not comfortable places to live in - great to visit but its always good to get back home to a system that , in theory at any rate, holds lawmakers and law enforcers to account for the way they perform their jobs.
This is a long way round to saying that, if is illegal then in any society that calls itself a democracy, it shoudn't be.

it is not illegal, but they will most definitely not like it. best to do it discretely if possible and if you need to goto court just file it as evidence

A Knowledgeable, Honest, Experienced, Professional Police Officer, lawfully performing his or her duties,should have NO PROBLEM with ANYONE filming them.

Not illegal. But if they think you have filmed anything that they think could be evidence of a criminal offence they can seize the camera as evidence.

no it is not illegal to videotape, unless u are private property, which most of those skateboarders are..... it wouldnt be private if there was no cops and security partolling.

no, in fact it is a good idea to protect your rights that way.

1st 2 answers are factually wrong.

no, you are free to record any conversations to make sure that if they say something thats bad you have a proof...