Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to give its officers high-tech gloves that deliver electric shocks to people they're trying to detain, according to plans posted by the Department of Homeland Security this week. The agency could spend as much as $20 million on the gloves made by Compliant Technologies, a veteran-owned company based in Kentucky.
The device is called the G.L.O.V. E., an acronym that stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. When a small button on the wrist of the glove is activated, it delivers an electric shock when it touches skin. It is similar to a taser, but unlike a taser, there are no prongs that emerge and break the skin.
Demonstrations of the gloves in use appear to show it inflicting pain. The Instagram page for Compliant Technologies is filled with videos of police officers being subjected to the glove in demonstrations. Many of them grimace or yell, and almost all of them fall to the ground. The Associated Press first reported on ICE's plans to equip its officers with the technology.
In one video, the founder of the company, Jeff Niklaus, introduced a demonstration on an officer with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department. After being shocked with the glove, the officer screamed and dropped to the ground, briefly debilitated for the moment the glove made contact with his skin.
That officer described the feeling later in the video as having "no control." The company's website says the glove provides a way to "de-escalate tense situations quickly and effectively." It is meant to make arrests easier for officers when a person resists.
"Our mission is to provide innovative, non-lethal solutions that empower law enforcement, corrections, security, and healthcare professionals to handle dangerous situations with confidence and control," the company's website states.
"I've had it used on me. It hurt," Kenneth Corey, who spent more than three decades at the New York City Police Department, told NPR. "Somebody simply grabbed my wrist while wearing the glove. I'm a big guy. I'm 6'3", about 250 pounds. It made my knees buckle."
Corey, who now leads the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, says use of force is like a ladder: each rung offers a more intense option. If someone is charging at you brandishing a knife, for instance, he says it might be appropriate to use more force, including an electric shock. He says the glove itself isn't really the problem; it's how an agency uses it or any other tool.
"It doesn't matter if it's ICE or any other agency. Any new piece of equipment that's being introduced, you have to have strong policies that govern its use. And then you have to make sure that your people are being held accountable, that they're following those policies," Corey says.
He says if those guardrails aren't in place, many tools are ripe for abuse.
That's the concern among many immigrant advocates. ICE has come under intense scrutiny over its use of force since the Trump administration scaled up its deportation efforts. Federal immigration officers have fatally shot multiple people, including two last month.
Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs for immigration with the ACLU, questioned whether ICE officers have been trained properly to use a tool like this, particularly given their recent efforts to rapidly hire more than 12,000 officers in less than a year .
"My immediate reaction was, why would you give this kind of novel dangerous technology that's hard to train people on to agency personnel who have a track record of abuse and even cruelty?" Shah says. "The idea of arming ICE agents with limited training and a recent track record of misusing force and using it way too much, to hand them this kind of weapon is reckless and surprising."
Shah authored a report released a few weeks ago that documented widespread use of force by federal immigration agents during President Trump's first year in office, including tools such as tasers being used hundreds of times.
The glove technology has been around for less than a decade, but it is already used in a variety of settings, including schools. At least one city — Omaha, Neb. — has purchased the devices for its public schools, though it's unclear whether it is actively being used.
A list of buyers reviewed by NPR at a school safety conference last year also included more than 50 police departments in about 20 states; Prisons, jails, and several hospitals have also purchased the electric shock gloves.
"This same technology can be a game-changer in healthcare settings, helping to safely manage agitated or combative patients, protecting staff, which fosters a safer and more controlled environment," the company wrote on its website.
Compliant Technologies declined to comment. On its website, the company says there have been no documented injuries from the glove.
In a statement, DHS told NPR that ICE is always assessing the needs of its officers to ensure they have the tools they need to safely make arrests, and that officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics.
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