at the time, university of memphis psychiatry professor randy dupont was directing the city's main psychiatric emergency service. he helped develop the c.i.t. program. >> in an event that's going to escalate and become a crisis, it's going to be those first few minutes that are pretty critical. so, what they thought about when they came up with this concept, was, why don't we take some of that expertise... let's identify those officers that want to do this that could be good at it, give them the best training we can find, and then let's look and see what kind of differences that makes. >> reporter: that training starts with changing officers' attitudes and perceptions. dupont says people in crisis often act out of fear and may not understand what's happening around them. an untrained officer could interpret such behavior as defiance or "non-compliance." >> officers are often trained in the academy to see non- compliance and respond with greater use of force. that's part of their training. but in c.i.t., what we're trying to say to the officers is, "let's analyze the non- compliance. let's look