ICE Buys $16.7 Million Of Electric Gloves To Make De-Escalation Hurt On Contact

WASHINGTON—Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract for 6,000 pairs of gloves that deliver painful electrical pulses, expanding the federal definition of de-escalation to include equipment that shocks the person being calmed.

The devices operate as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a button and applies them directly to someone’s skin. ICE calls them “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” and says they can gain control of people who are actively or passively resisting, help handcuff people hiding their hands, and assist officers responding to civil disturbances outside detention facilities.

Compliant Technologies received the sole-source order because the agency determined that only the Kentucky company makes the required wearable electrical weapon. The six-month purchase includes support equipment and services as well as the 6,000 units. Divided evenly across the order, the package works out to about $2,783 per pair, allowing fiscal discipline to begin at the fingertips.

Sixteen Democratic senators asked ICE to cancel the purchase hours before the award was posted. They requested medical and safety reviews, training plans, use-of-force records, and an explanation for the sole-source contract. The Department of Homeland Security called efforts to deny agents safety equipment “despicable” and said the devices could prevent officers from resorting to firearms.

The agency has therefore placed a new rung on its force ladder. Before an encounter reaches the level where an officer might shoot, it may now be resolved by an electrified hand built to make resistance physically painful.