To End Police Brutality, Startups Have The Answer 🔫

Do we really need this? 

The police force in U.S. have been accused of brutality and seemingly unwarranted aggression when dealing with unarmed civilians, shouting obscenities with their guns drawn. They’ve also been accused of attacking innocent civilians based on misjudgement and prejudice. In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio when an officer mistook a toy gun for a real one. In April, Daunte Wright was shot dead in Minnesota when an officer allegedly fired her gun instead of a Taser during a traffic stop.

Such behaviour is exacerbated by racial bias. Black people are three times more likely to die during an interaction with the police than white people are. 

Can technology solve this problem? 

The founders believe that e-Train could be used to help identify when officers might have unseen bias – for instance, if they react differently to simulated encounters with Black suspects. deCervo has already partnered with the NYPD, and is now marketing its services to other police forces.

Other companies are also developing similar products. Cognitive Command, founded by psychologist Jonathan Page, has been adopted into the curriculum by a police academy in Washington state. Polis Solutions, founded by University of Washington sociologist Jonathan Wender, has trained hundreds of officers using an approach that gradually ramps up stress levels over time.

Nigeria has the highest volume of startups - over 750 - in Africa. No surprises there. But while Lagos is renowned for its startup culture, the nation is still thwarted in its startup goals. 

Here’s why.

One, the country is plagued by infrastructure issues such as poor internet speed, access and connection, which has taken a toll on its innovation and funding scene. When compared to its other African counterparts, innovation and VC investments in Nigeria are substantially lower. For example, Kenyan innovation boasts of being the forerunner in the African fintech space. And South Africa, which has half the number of startups as Nigeria, raised $241 million from VCs in 2020, compared to Nigeria’s $64.1 million.

Second, the recurring political instability and frustrating government policies play no small part in the country’s business challenges. While Tunisia and Morocco have passed Startup Acts to promote economic transformation, in Nigeria, promising startups have had to stop operations due to the rapidly shifting government rules. For example, bike-hailing apps in Lagos were banned last year for safety and security reasons by the state government; while the Central Bank of Nigeria has cracked down on crypto startups. 

It’s no surprise that these 750 or more startups seem to have very little chance of thriving.

Since the 1990s, Ireland has held a low corporate tax rate of 12.5%—lower than most other developed economies. Add to this its easy mechanisms allowing companies to move their money to zero-tax territories has turned the country into a tax haven for HNIs. Of the $616 billion in corporate profits shifted to tax havens in 2015, Ireland accounted for $106 billion.

The world’s biggest corporation like Google and Microsoft have used Ireland’s permissiveness to transfer billions of dollars worth of profits to tax-free countries. 

But all of this is about to change with the new G7 tax agreement. The unprecedented agreement announced last week puts a minimum global tax rate of 15% on multinationals. And there’s no escaping it. 

Let's take an example. Say a company headquartered/registered in Germany runs its business in Ireland, taking advantage of the 12.5% tax rate, it may still have to pay an additional 2.5% tax in its home country - i.e. Germany, bringing its total tax to the minimum 15% mandate. 

Does this mean Ireland and other countries like it can no longer serve as a haven? What if a company shifts all its profits to tax-free nations like the Bermuda? Will it still have to pay tax in its home country? Read more about how the G7 agreement affects big corporations. 

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