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ICE PLANS TO GIVE OFFICERS GLOVES THAT CAN DELIVER ELECTRIC SHOCKS.
 
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Madeleine Ngo and Shaila Dewan
August 12, 2026
The New York Times
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_ The Department of Homeland Security described the gloves as a
“de-escalation device,” but critics have expressed alarm over
equipping immigration agents with another tool that they say could
actually escalate their use of force. _

The government could spend up to $20 million to equip immigration
officers with the gloves.Credit..., Jamie Kelter Davis for The New
York Times

 

The Trump administration plans to spend millions of dollars equipping
immigration officers with gloves that can deliver electric shocks.

The Department of Homeland Security described the gloves as a
“de-escalation device,” but critics have expressed alarm over
equipping immigration agents with another tool that they say could
actually escalate their use of force. The plans have also drawn
concern from some former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials
who have questioned use of the gloves against people accused of
violating immigration laws, which are mostly civil offenses.

ICE has already been criticized for its aggressive tactics as it
carries out President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Immigration
agents have deployed pepper spray against protesters, dragged people
out of vehicles and fatally shot
[[link removed]]
at least six people since Mr. Trump returned to office, drawing calls
for greater accountability.

In a notice [[link removed]]
published on Monday, the Homeland Security Department said it planned
to purchase the “CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E.,” which stands for Generated Low
Output Voltage Emitter. It also said it planned to issue them to ICE
officers and agents who work on immigration enforcement and criminal
investigations. The contract could be worth up to $20 million, and the
purchase could be complete by the end of March, according to the
notice.

The department did not answer questions about how the gloves would be
used, such as whether they would be used to apprehend individuals
during immigration operations or during encounters with protesters.

“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,” the department
said in a statement. “Every decision is made with careful
consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology
ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement
policies and standards.”

The Associated Press reported earlier
[[link removed]]
about the notice. The G.L.O.V.E. is relatively new and untested; it
has not been widely adopted by police departments, and some policing
experts had not even heard of it before the news of the ICE contract
broke.

It is manufactured by Compliant Technologies, a Kentucky-based company
that says its products “empower officers to de-escalate tense
situations quickly.” A user manual
[[link removed]]
for the gloves says the technology is capable of inhibiting “the
subject from performing coordinated muscle movement.”

Sometimes referred to as a stun glove or a shock glove, the device has
been marketed to law enforcement in the past few years. It uses pain
to induce compliance, by delivering an electric shock on contact. It
emits a much lower voltage than a Taser, according to the company’s
specs. The company says the voltage is too low to work through dry
clothing or hair. It takes only about a second to switch the gloves on
with the press of a button.

It was deliberately designed to be what the company calls
“low-optics,” meaning that it resembles a regular glove and
“looks better on video” than other types of force used by the
police, according to Chief Adam Glueck of the Cape Girardeau Police
Department in Missouri, which uses the gloves, speaking in a video
[[link removed]]
that is featured on the Compliant Technologies website.

He said he was initially skeptical because of the sheer volume of new
tools that are marketed to law enforcement agencies, but was persuaded
by a demonstration in which the glove was used on him. “As soon as
you put it on my arm, I was absolutely convinced,” Chief Glueck
said. “I went straight down to the mat. I didn’t think about
anything other than I wanted that pain to stop.”

The testimonials posted on the company’s website suggest the tool
has been adopted more for use in jails than by patrol officers. The
company calls it a de-escalation tool. While the public may think of
de-escalation as involving nonviolent tactics like dialogue and
maintaining a safe distance, in policing, less-lethal or nonlethal
weapons are also viewed as a component of de-escalation, since using
them may make a higher level of force unnecessary.

Jeff Niklaus, the founder of Compliant Technologies, declined to
comment.

Civil rights advocates and former ICE officials under Democratic
administrations said they found it troubling that officers could be
equipped with a new tool that made it easy to inflict pain.

“Giving ICE agents, who have been reckless with their use of force
over the last year, gloves that can deliver electric shocks is
terrifying,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, the deputy project
director on policing for the A.C.L.U. “These are gloves that deliver
an electric shock with a simple press of a button, and that means that
force can be deployed really easily. And we’ve seen that ICE agents
are already too quick to use force. We’ve seen that ICE agents
routinely are not giving warnings.”

Scott Shuchart, a former top ICE official in the Biden administration,
questioned the need to equip officers with the gloves to pursue people
accused of violating immigration laws, which are mostly civil
offenses. Although he said that ICE also goes after fugitives who are
known to be dangerous, most people subject to removal are not
reasonably expected to put up “forceful resistance.”

Policing experts say that new tech is only as good as the policies and
training that accompany it. “What’s important in use of force is
not the tool or the tactic; it’s the justification,” said Ashley
Heiberger, a former captain and an expert on police tactics. “I’m
equally if not more concerned that they know when to use it as how to
use it.”

According to the company’s user manual, the glove is not to be used
as punishment or in response to verbal defiance or belligerence. The
company recommends avoiding use of the gloves on older people, small
children, pregnant women and severely handicapped people.

Users must be trained and recertified every two years, the manual
says. It cautions that no more than one pair of gloves should be used
at a time and for no longer than 15 seconds, factors that depend on
officer training and awareness.

After a lawsuit in Kentucky involving the G.L.O.V.E. system, Mr.
Niklaus blamed inadequate training for the treatment of the plaintiff
[[link removed]] and said no injuries had
been caused by the gloves.

The department’s planned contract also underscores the vast amount
of new funding that Congress has approved
[[link removed]]
for Mr. Trump’s deportation campaign. The billions in federal
funding have allowed ICE to hire more than 12,000 additional officers
and purchase new technology, including facial recognition tools
[[link removed]].

Madeleine Ngo The Trump administration plans to spend millions of
dollars equipping immigration officers with gloves that can deliver
electric shocks.

The Department of Homeland Security described the gloves as a
“de-escalation device,” but critics have expressed alarm over
equipping immigration agents with another tool that they say could
actually escalate their use of force. The plans have also drawn
concern from some former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials
who have questioned use of the gloves against people accused of
violating immigration laws, which are mostly civil offenses.

ICE has already been criticized for its aggressive tactics as it
carries out President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Immigration
agents have deployed pepper spray against protesters, dragged people
out of vehicles and fatally shot
[[link removed]]
at least six people since Mr. Trump returned to office, drawing calls
for greater accountability.

In a notice [[link removed]]
published on Monday, the Homeland Security Department said it planned
to purchase the “CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E.,” which stands for Generated Low
Output Voltage Emitter. It also said it planned to issue them to ICE
officers and agents who work on immigration enforcement and criminal
investigations. The contract could be worth up to $20 million, and the
purchase could be complete by the end of March, according to the
notice.

The department did not answer questions about how the gloves would be
used, such as whether they would be used to apprehend individuals
during immigration operations or during encounters with protesters.

“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,” the department
said in a statement. “Every decision is made with careful
consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology
ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement
policies and standards.”

The Associated Press reported earlier
[[link removed]]
about the notice. The G.L.O.V.E. is relatively new and untested; it
has not been widely adopted by police departments, and some policing
experts had not even heard of it before the news of the ICE contract
broke.

It is manufactured by Compliant Technologies, a Kentucky-based company
that says its products “empower officers to de-escalate tense
situations quickly.” A user manual
[[link removed]]
for the gloves says the technology is capable of inhibiting “the
subject from performing coordinated muscle movement.”

Sometimes referred to as a stun glove or a shock glove, the device has
been marketed to law enforcement in the past few years. It uses pain
to induce compliance, by delivering an electric shock on contact. It
emits a much lower voltage than a Taser, according to the company’s
specs. The company says the voltage is too low to work through dry
clothing or hair. It takes only about a second to switch the gloves on
with the press of a button.

It was deliberately designed to be what the company calls
“low-optics,” meaning that it resembles a regular glove and
“looks better on video” than other types of force used by the
police, according to Chief Adam Glueck of the Cape Girardeau Police
Department in Missouri, which uses the gloves, speaking in a video
[[link removed]]
that is featured on the Compliant Technologies website.

He said he was initially skeptical because of the sheer volume of new
tools that are marketed to law enforcement agencies, but was persuaded
by a demonstration in which the glove was used on him. “As soon as
you put it on my arm, I was absolutely convinced,” Chief Glueck
said. “I went straight down to the mat. I didn’t think about
anything other than I wanted that pain to stop.”

The testimonials posted on the company’s website suggest the tool
has been adopted more for use in jails than by patrol officers. The
company calls it a de-escalation tool. While the public may think of
de-escalation as involving nonviolent tactics like dialogue and
maintaining a safe distance, in policing, less-lethal or nonlethal
weapons are also viewed as a component of de-escalation, since using
them may make a higher level of force unnecessary.

Jeff Niklaus, the founder of Compliant Technologies, declined to
comment.

Civil rights advocates and former ICE officials under Democratic
administrations said they found it troubling that officers could be
equipped with a new tool that made it easy to inflict pain.

“Giving ICE agents, who have been reckless with their use of force
over the last year, gloves that can deliver electric shocks is
terrifying,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, the deputy project
director on policing for the A.C.L.U. “These are gloves that deliver
an electric shock with a simple press of a button, and that means that
force can be deployed really easily. And we’ve seen that ICE agents
are already too quick to use force. We’ve seen that ICE agents
routinely are not giving warnings.”

Scott Shuchart, a former top ICE official in the Biden administration,
questioned the need to equip officers with the gloves to pursue people
accused of violating immigration laws, which are mostly civil
offenses. Although he said that ICE also goes after fugitives who are
known to be dangerous, most people subject to removal are not
reasonably expected to put up “forceful resistance.”

Policing experts say that new tech is only as good as the policies and
training that accompany it. “What’s important in use of force is
not the tool or the tactic; it’s the justification,” said Ashley
Heiberger, a former captain and an expert on police tactics. “I’m
equally if not more concerned that they know when to use it as how to
use it.”

According to the company’s user manual, the glove is not to be used
as punishment or in response to verbal defiance or belligerence. The
company recommends avoiding use of the gloves on older people, small
children, pregnant women and severely handicapped people.

Users must be trained and recertified every two years, the manual
says. It cautions that no more than one pair of gloves should be used
at a time and for no longer than 15 seconds, factors that depend on
officer training and awareness.

After a lawsuit in Kentucky involving the G.L.O.V.E. system, Mr.
Niklaus blamed inadequate training for the treatment of the plaintiff
[[link removed]] and said no injuries had
been caused by the gloves.

The department’s planned contract also underscores the vast amount
of new funding that Congress has approved
[[link removed]]
for Mr. Trump’s deportation campaign. The billions in federal
funding have allowed ICE to hire more than 12,000 additional officers
and purchase new technology, including facial recognition tools
[[link removed]].

_Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for the New York
Times.  Shaila Dewan is a national correspondent for The New York
Times, covering criminal justice — policing, courts and prisons —
across the country._

_Albert Sun contributed reporting._

* ICE
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* abuse of power
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* electric gloves
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*
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*
*
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