Aug. 28 (UPI) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies for 6,000 shock gloves to be used to detain people by force.
The agency is ordering the product Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or GLOVE, a glove that delivers an electrical current when contacting a person’s skin. The gloves cost $2,495 each, the contract published on a federal database on Thursday reads.
ICE said it “requires a non-lethal, de-escalation device” to “diffuse situations or high-stress environments where physical altercations are likely.”
Along with the gloves, the contract also grants ICE support and equipment services from Compliant Technologies.
“This technology is vital to meeting mission demands, ensuring officer safety, and achieving the President’s public safety and immigration enforcement priorities,” the contract reads.
Compliant Technologies is a Kentucky-based company. Its instruction manual says that users should “always give the subject(s) a reasonable opportunity to comply before force is used.”
A group largely consisting of Democratic senators is opposing the use of the gloves, penning a letter to ICE’s acting Director David Venturella on Thursday.
“Over the past year, ICE personnel have been involved in numerous well-documented incidents of excessive force and civil rights violations,” the letter reads. “These incidents have shown the American people that ICE personnel are not adequately trained or accountable for their interactions with civilians.”
The incidents of excessive force referred to in the letter include the killings of U.S. citizens, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti within weeks of each other in the Minneapolis metropolitan area earlier this year.
“The American people have made it clear that ICE must de-escalate its immigration enforcement operations,” the letter reads.
