Fifty-two police officers in Turkey died by suicide in the first seven months of 2026, amid persistent concerns over long working hours, workplace harassment, financial difficulties and psychological stress within the country’s police force, according to the Police Suicide Memorial platform.
The figure amounts to roughly one police suicide every four days, indicating a continued increase in the pace of suicides among police officers. Seventy-three officers died by suicide in 2024 and 82 serving officers in 2025.
A 2024 survey by the Emniyet-Sen police union, based on responses from more than 15,000 members of law enforcement, painted a bleak picture of working conditions in the force. More than 81 percent said they were dissatisfied with their profession, while 84 percent said they would choose another career if given the opportunity.
The survey also found that 97 percent complained of long and irregular working hours and 96 percent reported experiencing workplace harassment, or mobbing. Thirty-five percent said they had considered suicide, while nearly three-quarters said they knew a colleague who had attempted or died by suicide.
The study found that the suicide rate among police officers was 3.78 times higher than that of Turkey’s general population. Nearly all respondents identified mobbing and stressful working conditions as factors contributing to suicides among police.
Faruk Sezer, founder of the Police Voice Platform, and İsmail Okumuş, chairman of Emniyet-Sen, have linked police suicides to long working hours, workplace harassment and financial difficulties, calling for improvements in officers’ working and economic conditions.
Concerns over workplace harassment within the police force resurfaced in May following the suicide of police officer Mehmet Erbil in the western province of Manisa. Erbil had reportedly faced pressure and mobbing from his superiors after issuing a traffic ticket to a relative of a district governor. Following his death, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Murat Bakan submitted a parliamentary question to Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi on the circumstances surrounding Erbil’s suicide and allegations of workplace harassment.
Parliament has repeatedly rejected opposition attempts to investigate police suicides and working conditions. Most recently, in February, lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) voted down a proposal by the İYİ (Good) Party to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate the causes of police suicides.
Similar proposals submitted by the CHP were rejected by AKP and MHP lawmakers in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
Concerns about suicides in Turkey’s police force have been growing in recent years, with unions and opposition lawmakers criticizing authorities for failing to address what they describe as systemic problems within the force.
