Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver electric shocks to subdue combative individuals, a purchase the ACLU calls "a recipe for harm to the public."
The Department of Homeland Security published a procurement notice this week for thousands of devices it calls "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices," AP News reported. The solicitation for a no-bid contract could follow as early as this Friday, with ICE aiming to complete the purchase by March.
The devices, branded the G.L.O.V.E., short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, look and function like standard patrol gloves until an officer flips a switch. At that point, they can deliver a painful electrical stimulus directly through skin contact. Compliant Technologies LLC, the Lexington, Kentucky, manufacturer, says the discomfort "is usually effective in bringing individuals into compliance in less than three seconds and leaves no burns, marks or scars."
For an agency tasked with arresting and removing illegal immigrants, many of whom resist physically, the appeal is straightforward. Officers get a less-lethal compliance tool that works in close quarters, requires no drawn weapon, and resolves confrontations fast.
John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, has been studying how the G.L.O.V.E. has performed in the jails and police departments that already use it. He told reporters the sensation is brief and sharp.
"It's immediate and sharp, and it will distract you. I call it like a bee sting."
Peters said ICE's planned purchase would likely be the largest order Compliant Technologies has received to date. He described several scenarios where the gloves could prove useful: removing uncooperative subjects from vehicles, houses, and detention facilities.
"If the officer is getting any type of resistance from the person, this is certainly an effective tool."
He added that the devices offer a particular advantage for officers who may be physically outmatched.
"For smaller officers or weaker officers or older officers, I think it has a great advantage."
Peters acknowledged that a small number of employees will likely misuse the devices, a reality with any tool in any large workforce, but said the gloves themselves are unlikely to cause injuries. He stressed that ICE would need robust policies and training in place before deployment.
Compliant Technologies imposes restrictions on how its product should be used. The company warns that the G.L.O.V.E. should never serve as punishment. Officers are told not to use it against people who are merely verbally defiant or belligerent. High-risk populations, children, pregnant women, the elderly, and disabled individuals, are excluded from its use entirely.
Officers must complete a training course before carrying the gloves and recertify every two years. The company says the devices have already been deployed in real-world settings: subduing violent suspects who refused to enter squad cars and controlling inmates who were harming themselves or threatening officers.
Those are exactly the kinds of encounters ICE agents face routinely, and the kinds of encounters that can escalate into something far worse when the only options on an officer's belt are hands, a baton, a Taser, or a firearm.
The planned purchase arrives against a specific backdrop. Two fatal ICE vehicle-stop shootings occurred in quick succession, one in Texas, one in Maine, prompting a temporary suspension of vehicle stops that President Trump later overturned, the Washington Examiner reported. The incidents intensified scrutiny of the agency's force posture and created pressure to find alternatives that sit below lethal force on the escalation ladder.
A DHS spokesman framed the glove purchase in those terms, saying ICE "is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country."
That statement points to a straightforward logic: if you want fewer shootings during enforcement operations, give officers more options short of a gun. The G.L.O.V.E. occupies a narrow band between verbal commands and higher-force tools, close-contact, brief, and designed to end a struggle before it spirals.
The American Civil Liberties Union reacted with alarm. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, the group's deputy project director on policing, questioned why the devices would be necessary for civil immigration enforcement and warned that subjects might have no advance warning before being shocked.
"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 added:
"Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public."
The objections deserve scrutiny, but so does the framing. Borchetta's premise is that ICE is "too quick to use force," a characterization the ACLU has applied to immigration enforcement broadly. Her concern about visibility, that "nobody else can see them do" it, applies equally to any close-quarters compliance technique, including a wrist lock or a pressure-point hold. And her description of "terrible pain" sits uneasily next to Peters's assessment that the sensation resembles a bee sting and leaves no marks or scars.
Civil liberties groups have opposed virtually every expansion of ICE's enforcement toolkit. That pattern does not make their concerns automatically wrong, but it does make them predictable, and it raises the question of what tools, exactly, the ACLU would find acceptable for officers who face physical resistance from individuals subject to lawful removal orders.
One element of the deal that merits independent attention is the no-bid structure. Newsmax reported that the solicitation would bypass competitive bidding, directing the full contract to Compliant Technologies. The company's founder and CEO, Jeff Niklaus, declined to comment, writing in an email: "Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject."
No-bid contracts can be justified when a product is sole-source, when only one manufacturer makes the item the government needs. Whether that applies here is unclear from the procurement notice. DHS said it was working on a response to press inquiries but offered no immediate comment on the contract structure or the justification for skipping competitive bidding.
Taxpayers have a right to know why $20 million is flowing to a single vendor without competition, regardless of how sound the product may be. That question stands apart from whether the gloves themselves are a good idea.
Several important details are still missing. The exact number of devices ICE plans to buy has not been disclosed beyond "thousands." The specific policies that will govern when and how officers may activate the gloves have not been made public. And no detailed record of injuries or misuse from the jails and police departments already using the G.L.O.V.E. has surfaced in the available reporting.
Peters, the use-of-force expert, said it would be important for ICE to have strong policies and training before putting the devices in the field. That is a minimum standard, not a high bar, and ICE should clear it publicly and transparently before the first glove ships.
Giving officers a tool that resolves physical confrontations in seconds, without lasting injury, is not a civil liberties crisis. It is common sense, provided the rules are clear, the training is real, and the spending is justified. The people who should worry about electric shock gloves are the ones who plan to fight the officers wearing them.
