What the Army’s Testing Report Tells Us About ICE’s New Shock Gloves

In August 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) granted a $16.7 million no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies LLC for gloves that can shock people. Experts have warned against giving ICE, an agency that has been scrutinized for excessive and deadly use of force, the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE). 

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we obtained the Army’s 2024 report on the effectiveness of the GLOVE for use in military prisons. The report details a variety of scenarios that the military may face when moving prisoners, and measures how long it took military test subjects to force someone into compliance with and without use of the GLOVE. 

The report makes it clear that the gloves are designed to inflict severe pain. It also raises other serious concerns about ICE’s plan to use it as part of immigration enforcement.

The GLOVE forces people into compliance through pain

The GLOVE is being marketed as a “non-lethal” device. In an interview, the president of Compliant Technologies said that the GLOVE was “so benign and humane that nobody gets hurt.” In the contract documents, ICE described the GLOVE as “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices.”

However, the details in the report make it clear that the GLOVE is exceptionally painful. The report explains “GLOVE works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings in the epidermis, causing a neuro-peripheral interference (NPI). The body perceives the NPI as pain.” It also noted that using the GLOVE will “achieve the pain sensation.”

In October 2024, several different Army divisions and subject experts ran elaborate experiments to test the effectiveness of the GLOVE. The measure they used to evaluate its effectiveness was “compliance time,” or how long it took officers to restrain the individual. Time and time again, the report noted that people “immediately complied” after the GLOVE was applied. The effects of applying the GLOVE were “sufficient and overwhelmingly immediate.” One test subject commented that just seeing that the GLOVE was turned on was enough to make them “lose motivation and not want to fight as hard.”

Reporting on the GLOVE has noted that it does not work through dry clothing. However, the Army ran scenarios specifically to see if the GLOVE would inflict pain through wet clothing and found that it does. The test subjects said that “being wet or having oil on their skin amplified the effectiveness of the GLOVE.” In other words, it hurt more. The pain also lasted longer: When the GLOVE was applied to skin coated in baby oil, the pain lingered for about 30 minutes. This creates even more potential for abuse, raising concerns that law enforcement could spray people with water to ensure the GLOVE works even if it is used over clothing.

The Army didn’t test for any health impacts

The report includes a disclaimer that its review was a “mission-based assessment of military utility and not a technical test of the technologies’ capabilities.” The Army trusted that the equipment had the “safety certificates to be employed by military forces.” 

The Army’s testing was performed on active duty military members. In those conditions, the testers claim that using the GLOVE “led to less chances of injury” for both those inflicting and experiencing the GLOVE. Both parties, it implied, benefited from avoiding a long, draw-out power struggle. But the assessment did not address whether the infliction of the GLOVE is itself an injury, and the test subjects were likely anticipating its use.

The tests were also not compatible with real-life scenarios. The test subjects were able to call “code red” to stop the test at any point, a safety measure that does not exist in the real world.

It’s also an open question whether the GLOVE is safe. According to a pending lawsuit in Kentucky, a man died after being shocked with a Taser and the GLOVE.

There are not separate use of force guidelines for children, the elderly, or disabled people

Compliant Technologies LLC advises that the GLOVE should not be used against small children, pregnant women, the elderly, or disabled people. But these are all groups that ICE regularly encounters. “It’s too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn’t pose a threat,” John Sandweg, the former ICE acting director, told MS NOW.

ICE does not have guidance in place that would prevent the GLOVE from being used on these groups, despite the manufacturer’s recommendation. We obtained an ICE response to a request for information from the United Kingdom seeking clarification on ICE’s policies covering the use of force against children. ICE reiterated that, as per policy, an ICE officer considers the “totality of the facts and circumstances to determine what level of force is reasonable and necessary to compel a non-compliant individual of any age.” 

ICE elaborated that officers will use their judgment to determine what the right force level is for “non-compliant aliens of any age,” raising the possibility that tactics like the GLOVE would be used on children.