ICE Awards $16.7 Million No-Bid Contract for 6,000 Electric-Shock Gloves

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract to buy 6,000 pairs of gloves that deliver an electric shock when activated, according to a federal procurement notice posted Thursday. The six-month deal with Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, covers the devices plus support equipment and services. CBS News, citing federal records, reported the gloves cost $2,495 each. ICE signed the contract Wednesday and posted the award Thursday.

The product is the CTG-5 Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or G.L.O.V.E. The Department of Homeland Security describes it as a “conductive distraction and de-escalation device” for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations officers. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch. Once in electrical mode, they must contact skin to deliver a shock. Compliant Technologies markets the pulse as a brief distraction intended to produce compliance in seconds and says the stimulation does not work through clothing. A company user manual for related models lists a maximum voltage of up to 380 volts. The firm requires training and recertification every two years. CEO Jeff Niklaus declined to comment when the purchase plan first became public earlier this month.

ICE’s procurement notice said officers would use the gloves in “high-tension environments,” including arrests, transport of combative detainees, and civil disturbances outside detention facilities. “It will be used when a subject is actively or passively resisting and an officer needs to gain control quickly to prevent injuries to both parties,” the document stated. It also said shocks would help “maintain control over inmates and prevent aggression or escape attempts,” allow officers to handcuff people hiding their hands, and assist with crowd control. The agency has described the devices as a lower-level option than empty-hand force or a firearm. A DHS notice earlier in August said ICE planned to spend between $10 million and $20 million on the equipment by March. Thursday’s award locked in $16.7 million for 6,000 units and support over six months.

The purchase comes during an interior-enforcement expansion under President Trump. ICE reported 49,571 arrests in July, the highest monthly total of the second term. Some local jails already use the same gloves. Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn told FOX 4 in Dallas the devices have been used by trained supervisors at the Tarrant County Jail for more than a year and that each use so far ended without injury to officers or inmates. John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, has described the sensation as comparable to a bee sting and said the tool can be effective against resistance. Compliant Technologies warns that use can raise blood pressure and heart rate and change blood chemistry and heart rhythm, and it recommends against use on pregnant women and small children.

Civil-rights groups and Democratic members of Congress opposed the buy. The American Civil Liberties Union said giving immigration agents “a concealed means of delivering terrible pain is a recipe for more harm to the public and less accountability.” Hours before ICE posted the award, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and 15 Democratic colleagues sent a letter to ICE’s acting director asking the agency to cancel the plan. The letter cited use-of-force incidents in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other cities and questioned whether ICE could “safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause.” House Homeland Security Committee Democrats had earlier written DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to halt the procurement. DHS has said technology purchases are reviewed for consistency with law-enforcement policy.