Overview
- Department of Homeland Security posted a notice seeking CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E. gloves for ICE with an estimated ceiling of $10–20 million and delivery targeted before March 31, 2027, and the notice says the contract could be awarded without competitive bidding.
- The CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E., made by Compliant Technologies LLC, looks like a patrol glove until activated, must touch bare skin to deliver rapid electrical pulses, and the product manual lists maximum voltages up to about 380 volts and short duration limits for use.
- The manufacturer’s guidance prohibits using the gloves as punishment and warns against applying them to children, pregnant people, older adults and many people with disabilities, and it requires operator certification with recertification every two years.
- Civil-rights and immigrant-rights groups including the ACLU and NDLON say the proposal risks enabling excessive or secretive pain-based force because DHS has not published detailed use policies, training standards, data-retention rules or oversight plans.
- Coverage points to prior problematic incidents with G.L.O.V.E. devices in correctional settings, including a 2022 South Carolina case that led to criminal charges, and notes that the proposed spending level could put the device into broad operational use absent clearer public safeguards.