The CIT Program: Background
In 1987 police officers were called to an area of public housing in Memphis, Tennessee where a young man was threatening people with a knife. When police officers ordered him to put down the knife, he refused. The officers eventually opened fire and the young man died of multiple gunshot wounds. The man had a history of mental illness. He was black and the officers were white. Many citizens raised their voices in angry protest against the officers with cries of racism and police brutality. Calmer voices prevailed calling for the community to develop a better way to intervene with individuals in mental health crisis. The Mayor of Memphis turned to local advocates from the National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) and enlisted police, community mental health professionals, university leaders, hospital administrators, and church officials to seek a new approach to working with persons with mental illness in crisis.