ICE to Acquire Electric Shock Gloves for Officer Use

The Department of Homeland Security announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend $10 million to $20 million on "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices" for its officers by March. The gloves, called G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter) and produced by Compliant Technologies of Lexington, Kentucky, are designed to deliver a brief electric shock when a switch is pressed and the gloves are applied to a person's skin.

The agency intends to award a no-bid contract, with a solicitation possibly issued as early as Friday. Compliant Technologies says the devices function like ordinary patrol gloves until activated, delivering a sharp, immediate stimulus that it describes as comparable to a bee sting.

"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.

Civil-rights advocates, including the ACLU, expressed concern that the gloves could be used without warning and increase the risk of excessive force. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the ACLU, said the public should not trust ICE officers to employ the devices appropriately.

"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 told the Associated Press.

Compliant Technologies cautions that the gloves should not be used as punishment or on vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women, the elderly or disabled. The company states that officers must complete a training course and be recertified every two years.

The planned acquisition coincides with an expanded enforcement push that aims to arrest up to 2,000 individuals per day, a strategy that has drawn scrutiny after recent incidents involving lethal force during ICE operations.