ICE Plans to Spend Up to $20 Million on Gloves That Deliver Electric Shocks — and to Buy Them Without Taking Bids

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon carry gloves that deliver painful electric shocks on contact, under a purchase plan disclosed in a Department of Homeland Security notice published Monday.

The notice says ICE intends to spend between $10 million and $20 million on what it calls "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices" for officers and agents by March. The device is the G.L.O.V.E. — Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, and already in use at some jails and police departments. According to the notice, the solicitation for a no-bid contract could be published as early as Friday.

The manufacturer says the gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch to activate their electrical mode. They must be pressed directly against a person's skin, and the company says the resulting pain stimulus typically produces compliance within seconds. John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, who is studying how the device has been used in the field, described the sensation to The Associated Press: "It's immediate and sharp, and it will distract you. I call it like a bee sting." Peters said the purchase would likely be the largest the company has ever recorded, and said he could see ICE officers using the gloves to pull uncooperative people out of cars and houses and to move detainees in and out of facilities. "For smaller officers or weaker officers or older officers, I think it has a great advantage," he said, because it shortens confrontations.

Civil rights groups reacted with alarm. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, questioned why a device built for combative jail inmates belongs in civil immigration enforcement, and noted that a person being shocked may get no warning at all. "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 AP. "Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public."

Compliant Technologies itself warns that the device should not be used as punishment, against people showing only "verbal defiance or belligerence," or on high-risk populations including children, pregnant women, and elderly or disabled people. Officers must complete a training course and be recertified every two years. Peters said he expects a small number of employees to misuse the gloves, as happens with any policing technology, but does not expect serious injuries — provided ICE writes robust policy and training around them.

DHS told the AP on Tuesday it was preparing a response and offered no immediate comment. CBS News also sought comment from the department and the manufacturer. Jeff Niklaus, the founder and chief executive of Compliant Technologies, told the AP: "Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject." The planned purchase comes as ICE expands its enforcement operation under White House pressure to arrest 2,000 people a day, and after a series of use-of-force controversies involving agents who were not wearing body cameras.