Police Brutality, Mental Illness and 'The Memphis Model'

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/police_brutality_mental_illness_and_the_memphis_model_20131023

I read the article, “Police Brutality, Mental Illness and ‘The Memphis Model’”, originally found on the www.truthdig.com website.  The article explains a couple situations where concerned family members called the New York Police Department, requesting the NYPD to go and check on a relative of theirs who is known to have some form of mental illness.  In one specific case, a woman called 911 requesting assistance with her husband as she was out of the country on vacation and her husband was acting as though he had missed taking his prescribed medicine.  She informed the 911 operator that her husband would not hurt anyone however when the police went to check on him, they ended up shooting him dead.   The author explains how the term “The Memphis Model”  fits this situation.  This terminology was coined back in ’87 when a retired police officer “…responded to a man who was harming himself and threatening others, with a knife” and the police ended up killing the man.  Felt part of this had a policy claim as it is stating how things need to be changed to avoid similar deaths from happening like this again was also a causal argument as it listed out situations where if things were handled differently (different “causes”), some of these may not have occurred.