Date:
September 1, 2026 20
To: Board of Supervisors
Title
Protecting Community Safety: Support for AB 2760 Prohibiting Wearable Electroshock Weapons in California, and A-72 Waiver (Districts: All)
End
Overview
The State of California and the County of San Diego have committed to reducing unnecessary and excessive force, promoting deescalation, and strengthening accountability in law enforcement practices. Yet communities continue to experience aggressive tactics from local, state, and federal law enforcement. In recent years, these issues have surfaced most visibly in San Diego’s border communities, where residents regularly encounter militarized immigration enforcement and report issues such as excessive force, harsh detention conditions, and limited accountability. Individuals detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center face heightened vulnerability with limited mechanisms available to record or challenge improper conduct.
Amid these concerns, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to equip agents with wearable electroshock gloves known as G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), which deliver electrical shocks through direct skin contact. The Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to spend up to $20 million arming ICE agents with this technology. The device’s integration directly into clothing allows it to be used repeatedly during close physical contact, creating a form of force that is less visible, harder for bystanders to detect, and more difficult to evaluate after an encounter.
The dangers of this device are not theoretical. A pending wrongful death lawsuit alleges that 43-year-old Johnathan Mansfield was shocked 27 times with a wearable electroshock glove and an additional 13 times with a conventional Taser while detained in a county jail in Kentucky. Mansfield later suffered cardiac arrest and died. The case underscores how wearable electroshock devices can rapidly escalate encounters, deliver repeat...
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