ICE to Spend Up to $20 Million on Shock-Delivering Gloves

Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend up to $20 million to buy thousands of gloves capable of delivering painful electric shocks to officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.

The devices, called Glove — for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — are made by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. According to the manufacturer, "the discomfort associated with the stimulation is usually effective in bringing individuals into compliance in less than three seconds and leaves no burns, marks or scars." The company has advertised the product as a "humane, low-optics, de-escalation solution for many situations facing our men and women in uniform."

The gloves have previously been used in settings such as jails in the United States.

Compliant Technologies says the devices work as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch to activate the electrical mode. The gloves must be applied directly to a person's skin to deliver a pain stimulus that, the company says, typically produces compliance within seconds.

"It's immediate and sharp, and it will distract you. I call it like a bee sting," said John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, who is studying how the device has been used. "If the officer is getting any type of resistance from the person, this is certainly an effective tool."

Peters said he believed ICE's planned purchase would likely be the largest from the company to date. He said he could envision officers using the gloves to remove uncooperative people from cars and houses, and moving them in and out of detention facilities.

Civil rights advocates said they were alarmed by the plan, noting that ICE officers already face criticism over their use of force with little oversight or accountability while carrying out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Associated Press that she questioned the use of the devices in civil immigration enforcement. "ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do," she said. "Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public."

The manufacturer warns that the device should not be used as punishment, against people merely showing "verbal defiance or belligerence," or on high-risk populations such as children, pregnant women, or elderly or disabled people.

Jeff Niklaus, the founder and chief executive of Compliant Technologies, wrote in an email: "Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject."