Orhan Sait Berber
Former Ankara deputy police chief İsmail Öztürk has warned that long working hours, pressure from superiors and weakened recruitment standards are fueling burnout among police officers in Turkey amid a sharp rise in reported suicides in the force.
According to publicly available figures, 73 police officers died by suicide in 2024 and 93 in 2025.
The figures point to a striking gap between the general population and the police force. In 2022, when the gap was most pronounced, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) recorded Turkey’s crude suicide rate at 4.13 per 100,000 people, while data from the Security Directorate General put the rate among police officers at 20 per 100,000.
Öztürk said the nature of police work requires strong psychological resilience because officers are routinely exposed to some of society’s most severe problems.
“Police are present where society’s problems erupt — murders, domestic violence, crises, fights and trauma. Officers are constantly exposed to these situations. That means police officers must be psychologically very strong,” he said.
He claimed that a high rate of thoughts of suicide among officers points not only to difficult working conditions but also to weakened recruitment standards.
“There is no police organization in the world other than in Turkey where one in every three officers has considered suicide. If that is happening, then there is a serious problem in the selection criteria,” Öztürk told Turkish Minute.
His remarks are in line with the findings of a large-scale survey conducted in 2024 by the Turkish Police Force Union, an organization representing police with the participation of more than 15,000 police personnel.
One of the survey’s most striking findings concerned suicidal thoughts. Some 35.2 percent of respondents said they had considered suicide at some point in their lives or that the idea had crossed their minds.
The survey also found that three out of every four officers knew a colleague who had either died by suicide or attempted suicide during their career.
Respondents cited mobbing and pressure from superiors as the leading perceived cause of suicides, at 99 percent, followed by working hours and job-related stress at 98.5 percent.
The survey painted a broader picture of deep dissatisfaction within the police force. According to the findings, 73.3 percent of respondents said they were unhappy working in the force, while 81 percent said they were dissatisfied with current working conditions.
Among the biggest problems cited by officers were long and irregular working hours at 97 percent, a “feeling of abandonment” at 96.6 percent and mobbing and pressure from superiors at 96 percent.
The report said many officers work an average of 240 hours per month. Despite working longer hours than other public employees, police officers reportedly receive no overtime pay.
The research further showed that many police officers entered the profession primarily for economic reasons. Some 72.6 percent said they joined the police force because of financial concerns, while 76.8 percent said they would resign if they had the opportunity to choose another profession.
Another notable finding was the lack of trust in institutional mechanisms. Only 4.3 percent of respondents said they would report professional problems to their superiors, while 52.2 percent said they voiced their grievances on social media.
Shift system and extra assignments fuel burnout
Öztürk said the police force’s shift system and frequent additional assignments are among the main factors driving burnout, leaving many officers unable to maintain a private life or plan time with their families.
Officers are reportedly required to work nearly 300 hours a month during some periods.
“Police officers can no longer plan their own lives. On their day off they are assigned to football matches or public demonstrations. They cannot spend time with family or friends,” he said.
He said additional assignments are especially stressful because they often place officers outside their regular units and routines, requiring them to stand for hours in difficult conditions.
“At least officers working in their own units have some routine. But during additional assignments you stand for hours and sometimes cannot even go to the bathroom. After a while people begin to feel burned out,” he added.
Öztürk also criticized the law governing Turkey’s police force, saying the current system grants broad powers to managers that can sometimes be abused.
“Some managers assign more personnel than necessary to appear more successful. Thirty officers are assigned to a job that 10 people could handle. Police officers’ social lives pay the price,” he said.
He also claimed that officers receive insufficient financial compensation despite their heavy workload.
“If a police officer works 60 to 80 hours a week, they should be compensated for it. If people feel they are rewarded for enduring difficult conditions, they can withstand psychological pressure longer,” he said.
Öztürk said Turkey’s system of frequent reassignments also puts heavy pressure on police families, particularly children.
Police officers in Turkey are regularly reassigned to different cities under a centralized appointment system. Personnel often cannot choose their postings and may be required to work in different regions throughout their careers.
“Just when a child adapts to a new environment and makes friends, the family is sent to another city. Police families constantly live with a sense of alienation,” he said.
Öztürk also said younger generations of officers put greater importance on social life and personal freedoms, while the police force maintains an outdated institutional mindset.
“Generation Z values freedom very highly. But you are still trying to manage people with a system shaped by the mentality of the World War II era,” he said.
He added that police suicides cannot be explained solely by working conditions and claimed psychological suitability is being overlooked during recruitment.
“People with psychological problems commit suicide. If there are this many suicides, we cannot explain it only through systemic problems,” Öztürk said, adding that psychological resilience is critical in a profession exposed to severe trauma.
Post-2013 overhaul reshaped police recruitment and training
Critics say the pressure on the police force has been compounded by institutional changes introduced after corruption investigations launched on December 17 and 25, 2013, targeted people close to then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The investigations implicated Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan, the sons of three cabinet ministers and a fourth minister, triggering a major political crisis. The government described the probes as a conspiracy targeting Erdoğan and his government, while pro-government circles accused the police officers and prosecutors involved in the investigations of acting as part of a plot linked to the faith-based Gülen movement.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, had operated schools, tutoring centers, media outlets and civil society organizations in Turkey and abroad for decades and was at times supported by Erdoğan’s government.
The alliance collapsed following the 2013 corruption investigations, after which the Turkish goverment began describing the movement as a “parallel structure” embedded in the state. Gülen, who died in 2024, strongly denied any involvement in the corruption probes.
During that period, the four-year Police Academy and the Police College, a high school-level institution that trained future police chiefs, were restructured and later shut down in 2015 under legislation widely known as the “Internal Security Package.”
While the Police College remained closed, the Police Academy reopened the same year. Critics said the move effectively removed existing students through legal means. Senior students who were nearing graduation after years of training lost the opportunity to become commissioned officers, while new recruits were able to graduate after only six months of training.
During the closure process, pro-government circles claimed the institutions were heavily influenced by followers of the Gülen movement. However, schools, tutoring centers and dormitories affiliated with the movement were still operating legally at the time and association with the movement was not considered a criminal offense.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Turkey’s police force ranked among the country’s most trusted institutions in public opinion surveys. A report by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation measured public trust in the police at 3.89 out of 5.
That picture has changed significantly in recent years. According to a 2024 survey by ASAL Research, public trust in the police force has fallen to 16.5 percent. Studies indicate that public perception of the police has shifted markedly over the past decade.
International indices also point to a broader decline in perceptions of Turkish state institutions over the same period.
In Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Turkey was ranked 53rd among 177 countries in 2013, when the December 17-25 corruption investigations took place. By 2025 Turkey had fallen to 124th place among 182 countries, while its score dropped from 50 to 31. The index measures perceived levels of public sector corruption.