Overview
- A Department of Homeland Security procurement notice published Monday says ICE may spend as much as $20 million to buy thousands of G.L.O.V.E. units, with a solicitation that could be issued on a no-bid basis as soon as this coming Friday and delivery targeted by March 31, 2027.
- The devices, made by Compliant Technologies of Lexington, Kentucky, are wearable patrol gloves that switch into an electrical mode that must touch bare skin to deliver a short, painful stimulus described by one expert as like a "bee sting" and shown in a user manual to deliver pulses that can inhibit muscle movement.
- Compliant Technologies requires initial certification and recertification every two years for users, and the manufacturer’s materials say the gloves should not be used as punishment or on high-risk groups such as children, pregnant people, the elderly or severely disabled people.
- Civil-rights groups and immigrant-rights advocates immediately condemned the plan, saying ICE’s recent high-profile vehicle-stop shootings and other force complaints make the agency an unsuitable recipient without clear policies, independent oversight and transparency about when and how the devices would be used.
- DHS and the manufacturer have declined substantive public comment so far, and news coverage notes prior instances where similar devices were used in jails and transport settings and where misuse led to criminal charges, raising questions about accountability and possible legal and operational consequences if the procurement proceeds.