Plans to supply Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with special gloves that can deliver electric shocks have alarmed experts and drawn scrutiny amid some high-profile lawsuits over their use in local correctional facilities. In one extreme case, a 43-year-old man died after allegedly being shocked 40 times by officers with a combination of the gloves and a Taser in a county jail in Kentucky, and the man’s widow is suing authorities. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, published plans to spend up to $20m (£15m) to outfit ICE officers by March of next year with the controversial gloves, which are also used in various police departments and some schools.
Civil rights advocates protest that the federal agency’s use of force during Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns already lacks proper oversight. ICE “is putting these [gloves] in the hands of an agency that has dropped its hiring standards, its training, its background requirements in its hiring spree”, Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs in the equality division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said. But what’s also scary is what [their] uses will be where we can’t see them.
We don’t know how they’re going to be used in places like Fort Bliss,”she added, referring to the largest migrant detention facility in the US, where allegations of abuse are legion. The government denies claims of any inhumane conditions. Mehta further said of the gloves: “There are no circumstances where we think their use is appropriate.” The device carries the brand name G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and is manufactured by Compliant Technologies, a company owned by military veterans and based in Lexington, Kentucky.
The glove is known as a conductive distraction and de-escalation deviceand can only be sold to certain verified entities, such as law enforcement, corrections, security, military, and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, and requires training. It works by delivering an electric shock when the user pushes a button on the glove and touches or grips bare skin. In one demonstration video, a man gives a brief, light touch for approximately one second to the lower back of a prone volunteer, who jerks his body and cries out: “Ow, fuck”.
Compliant Technologies has posted multiple video demonstrations on its Instagram page. In one video from November 2025, a woman wearing the glove grips firmly on the exposed forearm of a volunteer man for about two seconds. The man buckles to the ground, shouting expletives and says “Let me go!” “I’m going to comply any time,” the man says from the ground in a half-humorous tone to the team running the demonstration.
Jeff Niklaus, founder and CEO of Compliant Technologies, can be seen laughing in the video as the man fell to the ground. The man, seemingly a prospective customer, says: “Yeah, we need that [product].” Compliant Technologies did not respond to a series of questions and requests for comment from the Guardian. A DHS spokesperson sent this statement in response to questions: “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.
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