Army study found shock gloves purchased by ICE cause pain, compliance and fear

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The shock gloves immigration agents could soon use to control detainees and protesters worked so powerfully during a military exercise that participants felt intense pain, stopped fighting immediately and feared additional exposures, according to a previously unreleased Army study .

Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders were aware of the findings before signing a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of shock gloves in August, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with The Associated Press.

The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise, which took place at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in October 2024. The participants, several of whom were large-statured men, stopped resisting seconds after officers applied shocks by touching gloves to their skin, and were left with “fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again,” the study found.

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ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on electrical shock gloves for agents

“After experiencing the effects of the GLOVE, … participants stated just seeing the GLOVE was enough to make them want to comply,” the authors wrote.

ICE has called the gloves “distraction and de-escalation devices” that will be safer than other non-lethal options to subdue targets for arrest and deportation and protesters who create civil disturbances. The agency has argued the rapid compliance they cause will keep officers safer and prevent incidents from requiring potentially lethal force.

But critics have warned the gloves will give ICE another weapon to intimidate and brutalize people even as the agency is under fire for excessive force that has left a trail of deaths and injuries across the nation. The gloves, they note, are easy to discharge, do not leave a mark and have not been extensively used in settings outside of jails. The manufacturer warns they should not be used on high-risk populations such as kids, pregnant women or disabled people.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to spend between $10 and $20 million to purchase electric shock gloves. The manufacturer markets the glove as a "wearable de-escalation device" that can deliver a maximum voltage of up to 380 volts.

“The military assessment in ICE’s own files shows that these gloves can cause ‘intense pain’ and force compliance. It does not establish that they are safe,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain, without showing that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it.”

ICE released the study and other documents to American Oversight as part of the group’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency seeking records related to its use of force.

The military prison study assessed whether the gloves could be used effectively to forcibly remove combative prisoners from their cells, to respond to disturbances in common areas and to transport uncooperative inmates. Role-playing employees conducted several scenarios with and without the gloves to test their impact, including violent encounters in which inmates were to fight as hard as they could.

The study found the devices “increased the efficiency” of teams carrying out forced cell extractions and responding to disturbances by reducing the length of physical encounters, keeping guards from becoming exhausted and preventing injuries. They did not “significantly change” the time it took to control inmates during escorts but required less effort.

“GLOVE provides a boost in confidence to smaller or less trained members,” the study found. “Inmate compliance was immediate” compared to other methods, it added.

The electric jolt does not cause the body to freeze like a Taser shock does, but instead “works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings” of the skin to cause pain, the study said. Participants who were wet or had oil on their skin described even more powerful shocks, with one reporting discomfort for 30 minutes afterward.

ICE’s contract requires the manufacturer, Compliant Technologies LLC, to deliver the gloves within six months. Its owner, Jeff Niklaus, said he was unavailable for an interview, citing a busy workload.

White House border czar Tom Homan has said it could “be a while” before the gloves are in the field because ICE is still ironing out training and policy issues. A statement released Tuesday by ICE did not address questions about the study and the status of the rollout, but said “officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics.”

US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said ICE has not responded to an Aug. 27 letter in which she and 15 other Democratic Senate colleagues called for ICE to abandon its plan to buy the gloves or explain how they would be used and managed to avoid abuse. She said she still wants answers.

“Without ICE’s responses to legitimate questions from 16 United States Senators, the American public is being left in the dark about how these electric shock gloves are being deployed and what, if any, training the agents who use them have received,” she said.

图片来源：Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via Getty Images

根据一份此前未公开的陆军研究报告，移民执法人员可能很快会使用电击手套来控制被拘留者和抗议者。在一次军事演习中，电击手套的效果非常显著，以至于参与者感到剧烈疼痛，立即停止了反抗，并担心再次接触电击手套。

据监督组织“美国监督”（American Oversight）获取并与美联社分享的记录显示，移民和海关执法局的领导人在8月份签署了一份价值1670万美元的合同，购买6000双电击手套之前，就已经知道了这些调查结果。

2024 年 10 月，在堪萨斯州莱文沃斯堡军事监狱举行的一次演习中，扮演反抗囚犯的陆军雇员受到了电击的严重影响。研究发现，参与者中有一些身材高大的男性，在军官用手套电击他们的皮肤几秒钟后，他们就停止了抵抗，并留下了“疲劳、疼痛和对再次受到电击的过度恐惧”。

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美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）计划斥资高达2000万美元为特工购置电击手套。

“在体验了 GLOVE 的效果后，……参与者表示，仅仅看到 GLOVE 就足以让他们想要服从，”作者写道。

美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）称这些手套是“分散注意力、缓和局势的工具”，与其他非致命性手段相比，它们更安全，可用于制服逮捕和驱逐目标以及制造骚乱的抗议者。该机构认为，这些手套能使目标迅速服从，从而保障执法人员的安全，并防止发生需要动用致命武力的事件。

但批评人士警告说，这些手套将为美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）提供另一种恐吓和虐待民众的武器，而该机构目前正因过度使用武力而饱受诟病，其过度使用武力已在全国范围内造成大量伤亡。他们指出，这些手套易于脱卸，不会留下痕迹，而且在监狱以外的场所使用并不广泛。制造商警告说，这些手套不应在儿童、孕妇或残疾人等高危人群身上使用。

美国移民及海关执法局计划斥资1000万至2000万美元采购电击手套。制造商将这款手套宣传为“可穿戴式冲突降级装置”，最高电压可达380伏。

“美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）自身档案中的军事评估显示，这些手套会造成‘剧烈疼痛’并迫使受害者服从。但这并不能证明它们是安全的，”美国监督组织（American Oversight）执行主任奇奥玛·楚库（Chioma Chukwu）表示。“所有人都应该感到震惊，因为ICE正准备部署一种旨在造成（充其量）剧烈疼痛的工具，却没有证明它对受害者是安全的。”

作为美国监督组织（American Oversight）依据《信息自由法》对该机构提起诉讼的一部分，美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）向该组织公布了这项研究和其他文件，该诉讼旨在获取与ICE使用武力相关的记录。

这项军事监狱研究评估了这种手套能否有效用于强行将好斗的囚犯从牢房中带走、应对公共区域的骚乱以及押送不配合的囚犯。工作人员扮演角色，分别在佩戴和不佩戴手套的情况下进行了多种场景模拟，以测试手套的效果，其中包括囚犯全力反抗的暴力冲突。

研究发现，这些设备通过缩短肢体接触时间、防止狱警过度疲劳和避免受伤，提高了强制押解囚犯和应对骚乱团队的效率。它们虽然没有“显著改变”押解过程中控制囚犯所需的时间，但确实减少了所需的人力。

研究发现，“GLOVE 系统能显著增强体型较小或训练不足的囚犯的信心”。研究还补充说，与其他方法相比，“囚犯的配合度更高”。

研究表明，电击不会像泰瑟枪那样使身体僵住，而是“通过刺激皮肤周围的神经末梢”来产生疼痛。皮肤潮湿或沾有油渍的参与者表示，他们感受到的电击强度更大，其中一人甚至在电击后30分钟内都感到不适。

ICE的合同要求制造商Compliant Technologies LLC在六个月内交付手套。该公司老板杰夫·尼克劳斯表示，由于工作繁忙，他无法接受采访。

白宫边境事务负责人汤姆·霍曼表示，由于美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）仍在完善培训和政策问题，这些手套可能“还需要一段时间”才能投入使用。ICE周二发表的一份声明没有回应有关研究和推广进展的问题，但表示“执法人员接受过严格的冲突降级策略培训”。

内华达州参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯托表示，美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）尚未回应她于8月27日与其他15位民主党参议员联名致信ICE的请求。在信中，她呼吁ICE放弃购买手套的计划，或解释这些手套将如何使用和管理以避免滥用。她表示，她仍然希望得到答复。

“由于美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）没有回应16位美国参议员提出的合理问题，美国公众仍然不清楚这些电击手套是如何部署的，以及使用这些手套的执法人员是否接受过任何培训，以及接受过哪些培训，”她说。