Due to the urgent necessities that arose in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, changes were made to the Law no. 3201 on the Police Organization so that graduates of high schools and equivalent schools younger than 28 can apply to police training centers and police special operations in order to pass the physical aptitude exam and interview, without having to take the civil servant selection exam KPSS (Executive Decree 671 Article 26 and Executive Decree 676 Article 28). However, only four-year university graduates and two-year college graduates (the latter at most 20% of the total) can be accepted to police training centers to become police officers (Executive Decree 694 Article 14). In 2015, it was requested that the candidates had to surpass a specific threshold in KPSS.
Another amendment to the Law no. 3201 on the Police Organization has redefined the Police Special Operations Department as a separate department within the central organization structure, separate from other departments. (Executive Decree 694 Article 13) The Police Special Operations Department Head, deputy and manager were added to the list of vocational titles and appellations (Executive Decree 694 Article 12). Another article of Law no. 3201 was also changed such that the expression “and the Police Special Operations Department Head” was added after “Special Security Supervision Department Head” (Executive Decree 694 Article 15).