Plans to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with special gloves that can deliver electric shocks have alarmed experts and sparked scrutiny amid some high-profile lawsuits over their use in local correctional facilities. In one extreme case, a 43-year-old man died after officers allegedly shocked him 40 times with a combination of gloves and a Taser in a Kentucky county jail, and the man’s widow is suing authorities. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, released plans to spend up to $20 million (£15 million) to equip ICE officers by March next year with the controversial gloves, which are also used in several police departments and some schools. Civil rights advocates are protesting that the federal agency’s use of force during Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown already lacks adequate oversight. [gloves] in the hands of an agency that has abandoned its hiring standards, its training and its background requirements in its hiring spree,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs in the equality division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “We’re already seeing the consequences of that in violent, lawless policing on our streets,” she told The Guardian. “What’s really terrifying is its use on the streets, potentially to terrorize people, to create a chilling effect. But what is also scary is what [their] The uses will be where we cannot see them. We don’t know how they’re going to be used in places like Fort Bliss,” he added, referring to the largest immigration detention center in the US, where allegations of abuse are legion. The government denies claims of inhumane conditions. Mehta further said of the gloves: “There are no circumstances in which we think their use is appropriate.” The device is branded GLOVE, which stands for Low Generated Output Voltage Emitter, and is manufactured by Compliant Technologies, a military veteran-owned and based company. in Lexington, Kentucky, the glove is known as a conductive distraction and de-escalation device and 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 presses a button on the glove and touches or grabs bare skin. In a demonstration video, a man gives a brief, light touch for about a second to the lower back of a prone volunteer, who lies down. shock glove demonstration Compliant Technologies has posted multiple video demonstrations on its Instagram page. In a video from November 2025, a woman wearing the glove firmly grabs a volunteer’s exposed forearm for about two seconds. The man crouches to the ground, yells profanities and says, “Let me go!” who runs the event. In the video, Jeff Niklaus, founder and CEO of Compliant Technologies, can be seen laughing as the man falls to the ground. “Say it louder,” he says, “Yes, we need it.” [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 constantly evaluates the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove illegal criminal aliens from our country. 324 volts and the maximum is 380 volts. A Taser, on the other hand, can typically fire spikes at a distance to incapacitate someone with 1,200 to 1,500 volts. The glove’s user manual instructs users to avoid using the product on the elderly, young children, pregnant women, and disabled people. Gloves have seen limited use in law enforcement, healthcare, and even some educational settings across the country. An estimated 50 police departments in 20 states are using this technology, according to an NPR analysis. In May 2025, the Omaha Police Department purchased 40 pairs of gloves for use in public schools for just under $66,000, according to city documents. The department confirmed in a statement that 29 of its 34 school resource officers (SROs), typically police officers who provide full-time security at schools, have received glove training and work in public middle and high schools. A representative from the Omaha Police Department shared with The Guardian a report of an incident in which the GLOVE was used. The report says a female SRO used the shock glove on a high school student due to his “highly aggressive and aggressive behavior.” The officer placed the glove on the student’s forearm twice, once for one second and then again for two to three seconds, which, the report continued, caused the student to fall to the ground, face down. According to the report, the SRO asked if the student needed medical assistance after receiving an electric shock, and he said no. Last week, Omaha police agreed to a request from the school superintendent to suspend gloves in Omaha, Nebraska’s largest public school district, NBC In a very different example, Joshua Elswick, formerly held at the Bullitt County Jail in Shepherdsville, near Louisville, Kentucky, sued Lt. Ryan Derrough, alleging excessive force, after Derrough, a guard, used the gloves on Elswick during pretrial detention. Elswick, who has paranoid schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses, according to the lawsuit, was arrested and jailed in September 2022 after a domestic dispute involving methamphetamine use. Derrough and another officer attempted to remove Elswick’s handcuffs and shackles before formally arresting him, but Elswick was paranoid because he thought the officers were going to kill him and resisted, after which Derrough electrocuted Elswick with his gloves, according to the lawsuit. The incident can be seen in surveillance footage featured in a report on the case by Kentucky television station WDRB. The footage shows a tense scene, with the guard wearing bright yellow gloves and using them against Elswick, who is fighting three guards, and shouting. The federal court in Kentucky dismissed Elswick’s lawsuit in June 2025, ruling that Derrough’s use of force was justified, a decision upheld by an appeals court in January. A representative from APB Consulting Solutions, a distributor and training partner for Compliant Technologies’ product, told WDRB in 2022 that agencies receive a lot of training and that, if used correctly, the gloves can prevent further injuries, although it is recommended not to apply them for more than 15 seconds. Sara Collins, a lawyer representing Elswick, declined to comment on the specific civil case, but told The Guardian: “With proper training and use, effective and less lethal force options are much-needed resources in law enforcement. However, shock gloves are not a new tool.” “I am concerned about the fact that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement agencies across the country do not use them,” he added, noting that relatively few departments out of 18,000 across the United States have purchased the gloves. “Feasibility, practicality, training, risk of error and intent are among my many concerns about its implementation by ICE,” Collins said. Meanwhile, Johnathan Mansfield, who was arrested on a public intoxication charge in 2024, suffered cardiac arrest two weeks after he was allegedly shocked 27 times with gloves and 13 times with a Taser at the Madison County Detention Center in Richmond, Kentucky, according to the lawsuit filed by Mansfield’s family against authorities, alleging wrongful death. The complaint alleges: “An internal investigation by the Madison County Detention Center found that ‘… Mr. Manfield [sic] suffered cardiac arrest following the series of Taser and GLOVE exposures.’” The internal investigation, as cited in the lawsuit, stated that “four separate use of force incidents were recorded…resulting in a total of 13 Taser exposures, comprising both probes and stunning applications, lasting between 23 and 28 seconds. Additionally, there were 27 exposures using the GLOVE: one of the shock glove exposures lasted 45 seconds and another for 99 seconds, the document alleges. The lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Madison County, Kentucky, is still pending.
