U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers might soon be outfitted with electric shock gloves manufactured by a Lexington-based company.
A public notice published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters, or GLOVEs, for short.
The Associated Press first reported the purchase Tuesday.
The technology is manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC. Exactly where the gloves will be manufactured is unclear, and the business is connected online to a Lexington P.O. box, rather than a physical address.
According to an online manual, the gloves are applied directly to the skin in order to deliver shocks, and act as normal gloves until turned on. They’re already used by some jails and police departments.
The manual says gloves aren’t meant to be deployed over verbal defiance or punishment, torture or horseplay. It also says to avoid using GLOVEs against the elderly, small children and severely handicapped.
Operators must be trained and qualified to use the gloves, the manual reads, and must renew their certification every two years.
Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have spoken out against the technology. ICE has been heavily criticized for its use of force — including multiple fatal shootings — amid a federal immigration crackdown.
“ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” ACLU Deputy Project Director on Policing Jenn Rolnick Borchetta told the Associated Press. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”
Compliant Technologies founder Jeff Niklaus declined a request for comment from WEKU.
