ICE Plans to Give Agents ‘Legend of Korra’-Style Electrified Gloves
The Equalists in the TV show the Legend of Korra are anti-establishment militants who sometimes wear electrified gloves, in part to counteract the perceived unfair advantages of their adversaries. The Equalists are villains, but like many well-written villains, they’re hard to hate.
According to a new report from the Associated Press, ICE will soon receive an almost identical weapon, the Compliant Technologies Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter or G.L.O.V.E., from a company called Omni Consumer Products—oops I mean Compliant Technologies.
Judging from marketing materials posted online by Peacekeeper Products International, which sells the G.L.O.V.E., these devices don’t seem like they’re for well-written villains. They seem like they’re for making already captive people fall to the ground and become more docile.
Indeed, according to a source who spoke to Fox, John Peters, president of a law enforcement training firm called the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, the device is already in use at jails and police stations. “If the officer is getting any type of resistance from the person, this is certainly an effective tool,” Peters told Fox.
An acquisition notice posted by the Department of Homeland Security, on Monday, says ICE “has a requirement to purchase” the Compliance Technologies G5 G.L.O.V.E. ICE must issue them to agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO). The estimated cost of the acquisition is $10-20 million.
According to the product’s user manual, which has been archived by 404 Media, “The G.L.O.V.E. is a Force Multiplier for officers operating within their agency’s current Force Continuum or Force Options.” Once the device is powered on, contact with the electrodes delivers a shock, with no trigger or activation button involved in the process. To test if it’s working, the user can simply perform a “Tap Test”: In other words, tap the electrode and “A slight electrical charge will be perceived by the user, confirming the device is functioning.” Sounds pretty simple.
The manual discourages use of the product on children, the elderly, pregnant women, and “severely handicapped” people. It also lists several medical conditions—mostly heart-related ones—that it says could be associated with “sudden death.”
The ICE website says there have been 34 detainee deaths in the fiscal year 2026 so far, and that there were 24 in FY 2025. In FY 2024, ICE says there were 12, and in FY 2023 there were apparently four.
Reporting from Gizmodo contributed to this story.
