U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could soon use gloves that can give a painful electric shock to anyone they touch.
As first reported by the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a notice on Monday revealing plans to distribute electrically powered shock gloves to ICE agents by the end of March next year. Called the G.L.O.V.E. (an acronym for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), the device is developed by Kentucky company Compliant Technologies, which markets it as a “Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device” or CD3.
“CD3s are not weapons — they deliver small, non-injurious electrical pulses directly to the surface of the skin, the body’s largest and most conductive organ, achieving NPI (Neuro Peripheral Interference),” Compliant Technologies states on its website. In short, the gloves cause a painful electric shock.
According to Compliant Technologies, the G.L.O.V.E “delivers a pain stimulus strictly to the area” of the skin that it touches, overstimulating and disrupting signals in the nervous system. This overwhelms and overloads the brain, causing a person to instinctively attempt to retreat.
“Because the effect is so intense, it disrupts normal thought processes and interferes with expected reactions,” the company states. “In most cases, this results in the subject effectively complying or conceding in order to end the effects.”
G.L.O.V.E. devices will be supplied to officers and agents across ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations divisions, with the DHS planning to spend up to $20 million to purchase them, according to the notice. The DHS is specifically interested in the CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E. model, which can output around 324-362 volts (to a maximum of 380) at 700-1200mA by touching a person. In comparison, Axon Enterprise’s TASER 10 delivers under 1000 volts at 1.5mA via prongs that pierce the skin.
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Higher voltage better enables electricity to flow through obstacles such as air, clothes, or flesh, while amplitude measures the strength of the current. As such, amplitude determines an electrical shock’s physical impact, though voltage affects the force at which electricity is actually delivered. The G.L.O.V.E’s low voltage means it will only work when directly applied to bare skin (or through thin clothing that is soaked).
Though designed to be non-lethal, the G.L.O.V.E. does have risks. Compliant Technologies’ user manual warns that applying more than two G.L.O.V.E devices to a single individual “may result in injury or death,” and recommends that it be used for no longer than 15 seconds. It also cautions against using the G.L.O.V.E. on vulnerable demographics such as small children or elderly people, or grabbing a person’s head, face, throat, chest, or groin.
“In our opinion, Compliant Technologies’ CD3 technology is the safest, most humane, common-sense, de-escalatory technology ever introduced into public service,” Compliant Technologies’ website states.
Mashable has reached out to the DHS, ICE, and Compliant Technologies for comment.
Multiple U.S. agencies already use the G.L.O.V.E
Credit: Compliance Technologies
ICE is far from the first U.S. government agency to use the G.L.O.V.E., which has been around since 2018. Compliant Technologies’ exclusive dealer APB Consulting Solutions claims that over 700 U.S. local law enforcement agencies use CD3 technology, and that it is the largest dealer of such devices in the country.
The Cape Girardeau Police Department in Missouri started using the G.L,O.V.E after reportedly learning about it in 2022, while Louisville Metro Department of Corrections was among around 50 Kentucky agencies using the device that year. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Texas has a policy in place for use of the G.L.O.V.E., the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri shared a video of officers training to use it last year, and Compliant Technologies announced in July that it had won a contract with the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association.
Kentucky’s Bullitt County Detention Center previously used the G.L.O.V.E. as well, but ceased in 2023 after an employee was found to have used excessive force when applying one to a handcuffed and shackled inmate.
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