ICE grants $16.7 million contract to buy thousands of electric shock gloves

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has granted a $16.7 million no-bid contract for 6,000 gloves that can deliver electric shocks, a new use-of-force tool that the agency claims will help officers control resisting detainees and avoid using more serious or lethal weapons.

Dubbed the G.L.O.V.E., or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, the device operates as a conventional patrol glove until an officer activates its "electrical mode." Once activated, the device must make direct contact with a person's skin to deliver a painful shock designed to force compliance.

In contract paperwork released on a federal database Thursday , ICE describes the gloves as "conductive distraction and de-escalation devices," and says the new technology will offer personnel a lower-impact option during arrests, detainee transports and disturbances surrounding detention facilities. According to the agency's procurement rationale, the gloves may be used when a person is "actively or passively resisting" and an officer needs to gain control quickly.

Federal records show ICE signed the contract Wednesday with a Kentucky-based company known as Compliant Technologies LLC, but formally posted the award Thursday. The six-month deal includes the gloves, support equipment and services. The gloves themselves cost $2,495 apiece.

The agency argues the devices reduce agency reliance on physical force and, in more dangerous encounters, grant officers an alternative to resorting to a firearm.

"ICE does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amidst unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents to help ensure they can de-escalate tense situations before they turn violent," the agency wrote in procurement documents.

ICE said the gloves would be deployed under approved policies, training requirements and accountability standards, though procurement documents do not account for those safeguards in detail.

Compliant Technologies' instruction manual says users of the gloves should "always give the subject(s) a reasonable opportunity to comply before force is used." It suggests using them for up to 15 seconds, unless the subject becomes more violent or endangers people. The company also states that the devices should not be used to punish people, and shouldn't be used on the elderly, pregnant women, small children or "the severely handicapped."

ICE first announced the planned purchase earlier this month. The plan has drawn opposition from congressional Democrats and civil rights advocates who question how the gloves will be used and whether ICE has adequate safeguards in place to prevent abuse.

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