AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to give its officers high-tech gloves that deliver electric shocks to people they're trying to detain. The company making these gloves touts them as a way to encourage de-escalation. But some immigrant advocates question the choice to put these tools in the hands of ICE officers. NPR criminal justice correspondent Meg Anderson is here to give us more context. Hi, Meg.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, wait. So what do we know so far about this plan for ICE to use electric shock gloves?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So the Department of Homeland Security posted plans for this no-bid contract, which could amount to as much as $20 million. The contract would go to a company called Compliant Technologies. It's veteran-owned and based in Kentucky. And it is the only company that makes this one specific device that the agency wants, and that device is called the G.L.O.V.E. That's actually an acronym. It stands for a generated low output voltage emitter.
CHANG: OK. And what exactly do these G.L.O.V.E. gloves do?
ANDERSON: Well, they shock you. So it looks just like a black glove. But it's got a little button on the wrist. And when that glows blue, it's activated and delivers an electric shock when it touches skin. It's sort of like a taser, except there are no prongs that come out and break the skin. But it is clearly painful.
CHANG: Yeah.
ANDERSON: The Instagram page for Compliant Technologies is filled with videos of police officers being subjected to the G.L.O.V.E. in demonstrations. Most of them grimace or yell and fall to the ground. Here's one example. In this video, the founder of the company, Jeff Niklaus, introduces a demo on an officer with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department. And just a quick warning, you are going to hear a scream.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEFF NIKLAUS: Dan (ph) has got a pair of gloves on. We're going to do a demonstration. We're just going to act, maybe, like he's an individual. So when Dan grabs Deputy Brobek (ph) with the gloves...
BROBEK: (Yelling).
(SOUNDBITE OF BODY THUDDING)
CHANG: Oh, my God.
ANDERSON: Yeah. So in the video, the officer falls to the ground. He gets back up. But it is clearly debilitating for the time that the glove's touching him. And that officer said later in the video that he had, quote, "no control." And that is the point. On the company's website, they say it's a way to de-escalate tense situations quickly and effectively.
CHANG: Wow. Well, Meg, I have to ask you - I mean, there's no question that ICE has come under a ton of scrutiny over its use of force. And, you know, we've seen federal immigration officers fatally shoot multiple people, including two just last month. So I imagine there are serious concerns over ICE using a device like this, yeah?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So I spoke with Naureen Shah about that. She's with the ACLU. And she questioned whether ICE officers have been trained properly to use a tool like this. This is an agency, as a reminder, that has hired tens of thousands of officers very quickly.
NAUREEN SHAH: My immediate reaction was, why would you give this kind of novel, dangerous technology that's hard to train people on to agency personnel who have a track record of abuse and even cruelty.
ANDERSON: Shah was the author of a report released a few weeks ago that documented widespread use of force by federal immigration agents during Trump's first year in office, including tools like tasers being used hundreds of times. I reached out to Compliant Technologies, but they declined to comment. On their website, though, the company says there have been no documented injuries from the G.L.O.V.E. In a statement, DHS told me that ICE is always assessing the needs of its officers to ensure they have the tools they need to safely make arrests, and that officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics.
CHANG: I am curious. How widespread is the use of this glove right now?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So the G.L.O.V.E. technology has been around for less than 10 years. It's not new. But it's also not not new. And actually, last summer, I was able to see a list of customers that the company has contracts with. I was attending a conference for police officers based in schools. And schools are actually one of the places where these gloves are being used. At least one city, Omaha, has purchased the device for their public schools. The list of buyers also included more than 50 police departments in around 20 states. And it also included prisons and jails and even several hospitals.
CHANG: That is NPR's Meg Anderson. Thank you so much, Meg.
ANDERSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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