The city’s inspector general for the NYPD is launching a probe into a recent number of deaths in police custody, a top-ranking department official told a City Council committee Monday.
Michael Gerber, NYPD deputy commissioner of legal matters, announced the investigation during a Sept. 22 meeting of the Council’s Public Safety Committee. The Office of the Inspector General for NYPD will handle the case involving no fewer than nine in-custody deaths that have occurred this year.
Among them were Christopher Nieves, 46, who died in Kings County courthouse after allegedly being denied urgent care, and 29-year-old Musa Cetin, who was found unconscious in a Manhattan police station.
Gerber said the NYPD Force Investigation Division has investigated, or is in the process of investigating, the in-custody deaths on its own, but other entities, including the Office of the Inspector General of the NYPD, also have oversight authority.
“[The] FID will always investigate every death in custody. The State of Commission of Correction does have the authority and mandate to investigate deaths in local correctional facilities, which would encompass some. The Department of Investigation, as I understand, it is going to be looking at these cases,” Gerber said.
While the NYPD Office of the Inspector General is initiating an investigation into these deaths in custody, Meghna Phillips, director of the Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society, urged systemic change.
“The tragic and preventable deaths of at least nine New Yorkers in NYPD custody this year underscore the depth of this crisis,” said Phillips. “While we welcome the Inspector General’s decision to investigate, accountability cannot end there. The City must confront the NYPD’s unlawful reliance on custodial arrests for low-level offenses, its failure to provide medical and mental health care, and the unsafe and inhumane conditions in precincts and courthouses.
Phillips added that “accountability cannot end there,” and called on the City Council, prosecutors, and all actors within the criminal legal system to adopt the reforms outlined in a ten-point plan that the Legal Aid Society and a number of other criminal justice advocacy groups announced Monday.
“No one should lose their life simply because they were detained in NYPD custody,” Phillips said.
Advocacy groups, including The Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, elected officials, and impacted New Yorkers, rallied on the steps of City Hall to unveil a ten-point plan that calls for mandating appearance tickets for minor offenses instead of custodial arrest and requiring independent EMS staffing in courtrooms and responding to medical needs — whether self-reported, attorney-requested, or officer-observed.
The plan also seeks to change the NYPD patrol guide standard to strengthen accountability for failure to provide medical care and oversight of the suicide-prevention standards.
Families and advocates say the system failed them.
“The thought of Christopher suffering while waiting to receive medical treatment for hours in a jail cell, before he passed away, breaks my heart,” said Candice Nieves, sister of Christopher Nieves. “The system failed him.”
Tina Luongo, Chief Attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, said that these deaths were the result of “systemic neglect, failed policing practices, and the City’s apathy to care for people in its custody.”
Defender groups joined in urging the Council to take immediate action. Lisa Schrebersdorf, Executive Director of Brooklyn Defenders, emphasized the urgent need for systematic change and accountability in response to recent events.
“NYPD’s pervasive policing of poverty and the illegal use of custodial arrests puts people in need of care into a system where their medical and mental health needs are far too often unaddressed, leading to avoidable tragedies,” Schrebesdorf said.
Read the full ten-point plan online at legalaidnyc.org.
