The executive director of the Fire and Police Commission announced Thursday he is conducting a review of how Milwaukee police decided to release information to the public regarding the in-custody death of Keishon Thomas.

The review will focus on what information the Police Department knew about the circumstances of Thomas' death and whether anything pertinent was omitted when the department released limited, edited and redacted camera footage of his time in custody 10 months before criminal charges were filed against two police officers.

"The criminal complaint does include a number of key factual allegations that were not included in the [footage] from a year ago," said Leon Todd, the executive director of the commission, at Thursday's meeting. "This does raise questions about whether [the Police Department] met the appropriate standards for completeness."

Members of the Fire and Police Commission commended Todd as they learned about the review. But Todd also indicated that Ed Fallone, the chair of the commission, and who was absent from Thursday's meeting, had prior knowledge of the review and directed Todd to continue with it.

“The Milwaukee Police Department proactively implemented community briefings in the spirit of transparency," Heather Hough, the department's chief of staff, said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. "While there is no formal policy or requirement related to community briefings currently, MPD will make its best effort to comply with the FPC’s request to review this matter.”

Thomas, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man, was pulled over by police on the city's north side and arrested over an outstanding warrant in February 2022. He spent at least 16 hours in police custody before he was found unresponsive in his holding cell. Three officers were placed on full suspension afterward, rather than the routine of being moved to administrative duty after such an incident.

An autopsy showed that Thomas died of acute mixed drug intoxication. He was remembered as a happy, outgoing caretaker to a large family.

About a month and a half later, the Police Department issued what it calls a "community briefing" – a video containing footage from body cameras or other sources with narration from police officials about incidents such as fatal police shootings or in-custody deaths.

That video walked viewers through Thomas' time in custody but did not explicitly indicate that any officers might have acted wrongfully.

At one point, the video shows Thomas calmly telling police he ingested "one rock," one or more pills of ecstacy and marijuana. An officer is heard suggesting he go to a hospital, but Thomas says he does not want to go.

Ten months later, when the criminal complaint was filed against the two officers – Donald Krueger and Marco Lopez – it went into greater detail.

The complaint filed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office said Thomas was throwing up, dry heaving and sweating while in custody. The complaint accuses Krueger of saying he would call Thomas an ambulance, but never did.

Lopez later took over for Krueger's shift, the complaint said. He is accused of missing at least 10 cell checks and logging false entries, instead spending his time painting and looking at a computer and his cellphone.

None of those details were included in the community briefing released by Milwaukee police.

Todd said Thursday he requested documents from the Police Department that would show how much information it knew about the incident and when. In accordance with state law, the investigation into Thomas' death was led by an outside agency – the Waukesha Police Department.

"It could be that all the appropriate information was included that was known at the time," Todd said. "There may be appropriate reasons why it wasn't, but those are questions that we want to get answers to."

Krueger is charged with abuse of a resident in a penal facility, while Lopez is charged with misconduct in office. Both are felonies.

Community briefings were created by the Police Department and are meant to function as an effort in timely transparency about critical police incidents. The department has a goal of releasing the footage within 45 days of the incident, but has not always met it.

The process, which is not governed by any official standard operating procedure, has been criticized by members of the public for its loose timeline. For about a year now, the Fire and Police Commission, which has oversight powers over the Police Department, has explored standardizing the process.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police oversight board opens probe in Keishon Thomas death