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Updated on: August 27, 2026 / 7:32 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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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.
