45% Of Police Officers And Staff Experiencing Burnout

Policing is facing a “mental health crisis” that needs urgent action, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as a new survey finds that nearly half of officers are experiencing regular burnout.

Oscar Kilo’s National Police Workforce and Wellbeing Survey 2026 found that 45% of respondents were regularly feeling burnt out, and more than half (56%) said they regularly felt physically exhausted.

Worryingly, one in three police officer and staff respondents reported coming to work when they did not feel well enough to perform their duties. Nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents regularly worked beyond their contracted hours – rising to 72% among officers.

The most commonly cited cause for this was not enough people or cover to meet demand, with the load falling heaviest on frontline and operational roles.

In addition, one in three police officers and staff reported being stressed with their financial situation, and 41% of police officers reported being physically assaulted in the past year.

Three in 10 police officers and staff said they intended to leave policing within the next year; the most common reasons for this were poor work/life balance, pay and benefits, and issues with leadership.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “The issue of burnout and poor mental health hasn’t been dealt with, so the true extent of the problem is only starting to come to light now. I keep saying it over and over again – we’re standing on the precipice of a mental health crisis in policing. I now think that we’re starting to fall into it.

“It is breaking officers in all departments and in all roles and at all levels of experience, and when you add the fact there are not enough cops to deal with footfall, there are not enough cops to deal with planned protests, you are starting to burn people out. I don’t know what the red line is going to be for there to be urgent, critical action.”

Steve said that Oscar Kilo was doing good work and that South Yorkshire Police “has been superb” in its support of officers who have been victims of assaults, but that “the core issue” was not being tackled. He explained: “We can talk about wellbeing all we like, but we need to reduce the workload and the stress on officers and the bureaucracy and the performance obsession by organisations such as the HMIC.

“They are breaking policing, and until we deal with that and have the courage to say, ‘Enough’s enough, we should not police by performance, we should police by what the public wants us to do’, we’re never going to see us taken off the red line. The vast majority of officers I speak to are struggling, and I think we’re going to start to see an exodus of officers increase over the next five years.”