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With 5 deaths in NYPD custody this year, public defenders ask who's policing the police?
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 15, 2025
Modified Sep 18, 2025
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Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 15, 2025
Modified Sep 18, 2025
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Public defenders are asking the city's inspector general to automatically investigate all deaths in NYPD custody after at least five people lost their lives under the department's watch this year.
According to a letter from the nonprofit Legal Aid Society to the city’s Department of Investigation, those deaths were "unacceptable and unconscionable" — and internal police findings may not see the light of day.
“The NYPD’s lack of transparency around how and why these deaths occurred enables these harms to reoccur,” the letter said.
When the NYPD makes an arrest, police often hold a suspect until they’re arraigned, at which point they're released, or head to Rikers Island and await trial. The death toll at Rikers continues to mount as well, but any death there kicks off a full investigation by the Board of Correction, an independent body that issues a public report.
When someone dies on the NYPD’s watch, the agency’s Force Investigation Division investigates internally. If there’s a question of whether an officer caused the death, the state attorney general’s office is required to launch its own investigation.
Legal Aid lawyers Meghna Philip and Philip Desgranges said that lets too many deaths fall through the cracks. The Department of Investigation, a law enforcement agency independent of the police, should be brought in for any death, they said.
"We have serious concerns that [NYPD’s] investigations are systemically deficient. We are pushing for DOI to review the quality,” Philip said.
An NYPD spokesperson said the state attorney general’s office already does what Legal Aid is asking, but did not elaborate on those cases the AG does not investigate, or the transparency of the NYPD’s internal investigations.
Twelve people died in NYPD custody in 2024, according to data tracked by the AG's Office of Special Investigation. Six of those deaths were deemed not to have been caused by an officer and not investigated by the attorney general. Six remain open, according to the same data.
The Legal Aid letter, reviewed by Gothamist, highlights the August death of Christopher Nieves, 46, who died in a Brooklyn courthouse holding cell after being arrested for allegedly shoplifting food.
His attorney said Nieves appeared jaundiced and was barely conscious. Despite both he and his lawyer requesting medical attention, Nieves was never taken to the hospital and died hours later.
Legal Aid lawyers cite four other deaths in NYPD custody this year, including those of Soso Ramishvili, who was arrested for shoplifting in March, a still-unnamed man who was stopped for fare evasion and arrested for drug possession that same month and Saniyah Cheatham, who died in a Bronx police precinct in July, where she was held for attacking her girlfriend. Musa Cetin was arrested in August for failing to pay a ticket for operating an unlicensed pedicab and was found hanged in his jail cell at a police precinct.
All five died while awaiting arraignment in the care of the NYPD.
Diane Struzzi, a DOI spokesperson, said the agency can investigate at will but would need a formal “must-investigate” mandate from the mayor, City Council or the city's Conflict of Interest Board to automatically investigate these deaths.
"DOI is not mandated to review deaths in police custody," Struzzi said, adding the agency can assist the state attorney general “in examining whether NYPD policies and procedures are properly followed."
She said DOI has not made any “any public findings regarding deaths in NYPD custody.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Letitia James’ office said it’s conducting a preliminary assessment of all five deaths in NYPD custody this year, but hasn’t determined if they fall under the AG's jurisdiction.
City medical examiners have ruled that two of this year’s five deaths — those of Cetin and Cheatham — were suicides. The chief medical examiner's office said Ramishvili died from an ulcer. The causes of death for Nieves and the yet-unidentified man who died in March have not been determined.
More people in custody
Legal Aid used its letter to criticize NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s focus on quality-of-life enforcement — a response to perceptions of danger and disorder after a pandemic crime spike.
Public defenders at the organization say the crackdown means too many people are ending up in NYPD custody who should never have been brought in.
New York state law requires police to issue tickets instead of making arrests for most low-level offenses under measures signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019. These measures are often referred to as “bail reform.”
When a person is accused of a misdemeanor, such as failure to disperse, shoplifting or drug possession, police are supposed to issue a desk appearance ticket and release the person to appear in court at some future date.
According to police records, in the first two quarters of 2024, the NYPD arrested 56,264 people for crimes that were eligible for tickets and took 65% of them into custody. For the first two quarters of 2025, arrests rose to 66,178, while the percentage of people held in police custody shot up to nearly 71%.
"NYPD's ongoing policy and practice of arresting and detaining New Yorkers for low-level offenses plainly violates [state law] and threatens the physical and mental health and safety of those subject to these unlawful arrests," Legal Aid's letter states.
The letter asks DOI to collaborate with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police oversight body, to automatically investigate deaths in NYPD custody and publish findings, just as the Board of Correction does for deaths at Rikers Island.
The defenders note that other cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle, have independent oversight agencies that immediately investigate any police custody death. The CCRB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to protesting as a misdemeanor. It has been updated to clarify that lawful protesting is not a crime.
Tagged
new york city
nypd
public safety
Charles Lane
Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected], or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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