For Black Americans, getting pulled over by police can be a more than terrifying experience, particularly when alone and other witnesses are out of sight. Mbye Njie said he founded the Legal Equalizer app to add a layer of protection for drivers and to hold officers accountable by recording interactions and even dialing-in witnesses.
“That’s the goal of it, right, is to change behavior and so that if a police officer pulls you [over] for speeding, legitimately, cool. Give me my ticket, let me get on. Let’s not ask questions about where I’m going, where I’ve been, what I’m doing. Let’s not hold people longer,” Njie told Cheddar.
To get going on the app, five contacts are linked and will receive notifications to tune in to a live Zoom call of the police stop. A user can simply use their voice to activate the app or just hit a button.
Recording police interactions is also an available feature in the app. While they vary across the 50 states, Njie said laws from each have also been added into the app’s features because, in many instances, people are unaware of their rights.
“As long as they know people are watching them, hopefully then when they start pulling people over, then it’s for the reason they pulled them over and not for any other excuses or anything that can escalate to something more tragic,” Njie said.
Holding Police Accountable
When it comes to police accountability, with enough data collected from the stops, according to the Legal Equalizer founder, the app will be able to compile a background on officers who are targeting specific groups.
To make the app helpful for both drivers and authorities, Njie asked police departments across the country, “What do you want us to do when you pull us over?”
“Most of the police chiefs I’ve spoken to love it because they say, 'We do want our officer recorded because if we trained them properly and we did things properly, then this is exactly what we need,'” Njie added.
Though Njie said he started the app after personal experiences with police, it has morphed into a hub that can help in a number of different scenarios, including domestic violence situations and school shootings.
Up next for the app, when it comes to law enforcement interactions, Njie said the company is working to expand capabilities that can tie in a database of attorneys who could also be tapped to join in during an encounter, offer advice, and stand as legal witnesses.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
