Sometimes something like a hulking Austrian body builder seems like a weird design for a human killing machine. Then real life suggests people may wear hairy gorilla suits to avoid pain compliance gloves during protests.
They're more for post-detainment torture. They'll keep shooting Black Bloc folks in the face from afar with 40mm tear gas canisters as they do currently.
> “In today’s society, you know, everybody’s filming everything, everybody has a cell phone,” Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But “the glove is low optic, and it looks better on video, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars.”
A lot who don’t vote have this mistaken idea that “well nobody perfectly fits my values.” They never will. It’s always a vote for what you think is a somewhat better outcome, especially if you only have two options.
Setting aside the morality of these vs other force options, these run at $1650/pair if I’m reading it correctly - $66k for 40. Anyone else find it like an insane amount of money for a device that’s so simple?
Why is there a requirement to guarantee it safe? I don't believe that requirement exists for tasers, for example, which are just considered less lethal. Same for rubber bullets.
If you're selling it as a nonlethal weapon, you should somehow make certain it's not going to kill except by freak accident, and cannot be used to kill deliberately.
Safe shock levels is a naive myth. What if the person had a pacemaker? What if they’re wet? What if one person is grabbed by the bicep and forearm, and another is grabbed by the chest and face? It’s completely impossible to assign one value, or even range, that’s both safe and effective for all commonplace variations.
And i’m sure they’re
follow those rules to the letter. Like how they always fire rubber bullet at the ground the way they are designed to be used and never directly at journalists
It’s really hard to believe that an officer who’s wrestling someone hand-to-hand, possibly on the ground or against a wall, is going to restrain themselves from grabbing face or chest in the heat of the moment.
Yep and the point is moot in that sense. There are those who will use the gloves as prescribed, same they wouldn't stoop to beating up a person of interest, etc. And there are those who will go directly for the sensitive areas out of spite, whether it be with glove, baton, gun butt or fist.
I always though in order to be able use these gadgets, The user should be required to submit themselves to its use on themselves.
That includes stun guns and these hand shock gadgets.
> I want the police to have a lot of options available to them, to avoid the “everything looks like a nail” problem.
That was the idea behind tasers - that they'd reduce use of guns.
In reality, they now get used in scenarios where less (or no) force used to be more normal. Why learn de-escalation techniques when you can just shoot a taser?
> A critical research question is whether officers can become too reliant on CEDs. During interviews with officers and trainers, the researchers heard comments that hinted at a "lazy cop syndrome." Some officers may turn to a CED too early in an encounter and may rely on a CED rather than on their conflict resolution skills or even on hands-on applications.
That's because they are extraordinarily suitable as covert torture devices. When government officials use them to inflict pain, they do not leave physical evidence and the only video evidence from filming the interaction is how long hands were on the detainee.
Ah yes. This was the future they envisioned. Nothing cruel and unusual about this. Because it’s not “punishment” - just incidental assault during the booking process.
> method to gain control of a subject through pain compliance
> In 2022, Assistant Chief Adam Glueck, of the Cape Girardeau Police Department in southeastern Missouri, purchased electric shock gloves for his officers after learning about them at a trade show. And his employees, he said, couldn’t get enough of them. “If I try to take away the gloves from those officers at this point I think we may have a mutiny on our hands,” Glueck joked on a podcast interview a couple of years later. “They’ve grown really attached.”
> The shock gloves, he went on to explain, allow their wearer to inflict pain without leaving the sort of marks that could look bad to witnesses or leave an officer vulnerable to lawsuits.
> “In today’s society, you know, everybody’s filming everything, everybody has a cell phone,” Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But “the glove is low optic, and it looks better on video, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars.”
Not really, because the whole idea is to have it used in discrete manner, a taser will be obvious and mostly recorded and shared online, plus once used there’s some time needed to reuse it again (the taser gun), those on the other hand, are discrete and can be used on multiple people quickly. The forced military draft will be “fun” to watch in the US!
Ghandi said you can judge a society by how it treats animals.
And to that we can add "and it's schoolchildren."
Gandhi*
How compatible are these with a super soaker filled with saline? Asking for a friend.
Compliant Technologies Glove 4&5 User Manual https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cQ176YYgNl3VXCgLX0ScoihsfXy...
“The device is not effective through clothing or hair and can be degraded on individuals and animals that are extremely hairy.”
Black bloc for protesting is going to become more popular.
Sometimes something like a hulking Austrian body builder seems like a weird design for a human killing machine. Then real life suggests people may wear hairy gorilla suits to avoid pain compliance gloves during protests.
They're more for post-detainment torture. They'll keep shooting Black Bloc folks in the face from afar with 40mm tear gas canisters as they do currently.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/ice-shock-glove...
> “In today’s society, you know, everybody’s filming everything, everybody has a cell phone,” Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But “the glove is low optic, and it looks better on video, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars.”
From afar the US is really sounding quite scary lately
From anear, too.
This is nothing new for US
Look up Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib
People get what they voted for.
The polls have been pretty divisive and relatively narrow, haven't they? A tyranny of the simple majority.
Most don’t vote. That’s a form of voting.
A lot who don’t vote have this mistaken idea that “well nobody perfectly fits my values.” They never will. It’s always a vote for what you think is a somewhat better outcome, especially if you only have two options.
Setting aside the morality of these vs other force options, these run at $1650/pair if I’m reading it correctly - $66k for 40. Anyone else find it like an insane amount of money for a device that’s so simple?
Feel free to recreate and calibrate and guarantee safe shock levels to offer it cheaper if that fits your morals
Why is there a requirement to guarantee it safe? I don't believe that requirement exists for tasers, for example, which are just considered less lethal. Same for rubber bullets.
If you're selling it as a nonlethal weapon, you should somehow make certain it's not going to kill except by freak accident, and cannot be used to kill deliberately.
Also, consider the safely of the police officer.
Safe shock levels is a naive myth. What if the person had a pacemaker? What if they’re wet? What if one person is grabbed by the bicep and forearm, and another is grabbed by the chest and face? It’s completely impossible to assign one value, or even range, that’s both safe and effective for all commonplace variations.
All covered in the article. Touching face, chest, groin, etc is forbidden. And the shock is local to the touched area (unlike tasers).
And i’m sure they’re follow those rules to the letter. Like how they always fire rubber bullet at the ground the way they are designed to be used and never directly at journalists
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lapd-laure...
> Touching face, chest, groin, etc is forbidden.
It’s really hard to believe that an officer who’s wrestling someone hand-to-hand, possibly on the ground or against a wall, is going to restrain themselves from grabbing face or chest in the heat of the moment.
> Touching face, chest, groin, etc is forbidden.
Sure, just like beating a suspect is.
Yep and the point is moot in that sense. There are those who will use the gloves as prescribed, same they wouldn't stoop to beating up a person of interest, etc. And there are those who will go directly for the sensitive areas out of spite, whether it be with glove, baton, gun butt or fist.
That is exactly the point you are responding to. There is no such thing as "safe shock levels".
This is just Taser(tm) all over again.
Sounds pretty cheap to me for such a niche product. How many electric glove suppliers (and buyers) do you think there are?
Do these really need to be sold as pairs? I suspect one GLOVE would be adequate?
Just add “tactical” to any product you make and you can charge 40% extra.
A “tactical wedding” is an absolute goldmine.
I always though in order to be able use these gadgets, The user should be required to submit themselves to its use on themselves. That includes stun guns and these hand shock gadgets.
That's already common practice in police (and military) training. (For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcVQ_k6d9J0)
It's a little different when it's your buddies testing them out versus torturing a suspect.
The Legend of Korra come to life
I want the police to have a lot of options available to them, to avoid the “everything looks like a nail” problem.
Something about this feels icky though. Maybe because it’s easy to imagine this being misused or abused.
> I want the police to have a lot of options available to them, to avoid the “everything looks like a nail” problem.
That was the idea behind tasers - that they'd reduce use of guns.
In reality, they now get used in scenarios where less (or no) force used to be more normal. Why learn de-escalation techniques when you can just shoot a taser?
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/police-use-force-impact-...
> A critical research question is whether officers can become too reliant on CEDs. During interviews with officers and trainers, the researchers heard comments that hinted at a "lazy cop syndrome." Some officers may turn to a CED too early in an encounter and may rely on a CED rather than on their conflict resolution skills or even on hands-on applications.
> conflict resolution skills or even on hands-on applications.
Do electric “pain compliance” (their words) gloves count as “hands-on applications”?
That's because they are extraordinarily suitable as covert torture devices. When government officials use them to inflict pain, they do not leave physical evidence and the only video evidence from filming the interaction is how long hands were on the detainee.
With a little imagination, anything can be misused and abused.
This looks pretty similar to those randomly timed electro-stimulation pads attached to the butt that you sometimes see in furry BDSM circles.
Flagged? This is a story about technology and its effects on society. Get stuffed with this censorship BS.
Ah yes. This was the future they envisioned. Nothing cruel and unusual about this. Because it’s not “punishment” - just incidental assault during the booking process.
> method to gain control of a subject through pain compliance
I do not see the big deal. I guess some have never encountered paraprofessionals and heard their stories?
Are these worse than Tasers? I would think a Taser's form factor makes it far more likely to be used.
They're torture devices.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/ice-shock-glove...
> In 2022, Assistant Chief Adam Glueck, of the Cape Girardeau Police Department in southeastern Missouri, purchased electric shock gloves for his officers after learning about them at a trade show. And his employees, he said, couldn’t get enough of them. “If I try to take away the gloves from those officers at this point I think we may have a mutiny on our hands,” Glueck joked on a podcast interview a couple of years later. “They’ve grown really attached.”
> The shock gloves, he went on to explain, allow their wearer to inflict pain without leaving the sort of marks that could look bad to witnesses or leave an officer vulnerable to lawsuits.
> “In today’s society, you know, everybody’s filming everything, everybody has a cell phone,” Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But “the glove is low optic, and it looks better on video, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars.”
Waterboarding is just a packaging problem.
Make it portable and convenient and those officers are going to love it.
Not really, because the whole idea is to have it used in discrete manner, a taser will be obvious and mostly recorded and shared online, plus once used there’s some time needed to reuse it again (the taser gun), those on the other hand, are discrete and can be used on multiple people quickly. The forced military draft will be “fun” to watch in the US!