Cadre Holdings Inc

Cadre Holdings makes most of its money from selling its products to U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies. In 2023, these sales amounted to over $231 million, or 54% of Cadre Holdings’ total revenue. The company also generated an additional $47.5 million—just over 11% of its annual revenue—from sales to U.S. federal government agencies, including the military, the Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In 2019 and 2018, U.S. Border Patrol deployed Safariland weapons against asylum seekers, including against women with toddlers, at the U.S.–Mexico border in Tijuana. Photos of tear gas and pepper spray canisters found at the scenes of these incidents indicate that the weapons were manufactured by Safariland and Defense Technology.

Customs and Border Protection purchased this tear gas through Aardvark Tactical, a major U.S. military and law enforcement supplier. Three contracts awarded to Aardvark by CBP between 2018 and 2019 for the supply of “chemical munitions” identify Safariland as the subcontractor. These contracts were worth a combined $724,645, likely an undercount since most such contracts do not specify the manufacturer. A purchase of $33,988 worth of tear gas in March 2018 was designated for U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego, where the attacks on migrants occurred.

Safariland’s direct sales to CBP amounted to more than $2 million between 2005 and 2013 and included unspecified “less lethal” munitions and bullets, launchers, batons, and riot gear. During this period, Safariland also sold equipment, including batons and riot gear, worth nearly half a million dollars directly to ICE. It is likely, however, that most Safariland equipment is sold to these agencies through suppliers like Aardvark.

Safariland has also supplied less-lethal weapons and related equipment to state and local law enforcement and prison agencies in at least 42 states. As detailed in the AFSC’s Equipped for War report, at least 43 California law enforcement agencies have purchased Safariland/Defense Technology 40mm impact and powder barricade munitions, SWAT 40mm grenade launchers, riot control gear, and other equipment. This equipment was purchased either directly from Safariland or via law enforcement distributors such as Adamson Police Products, Aardvark Tactical, and LC Action Police Supply.

Police have routinely used Safariland tear gas weapons against protestors and activists. In 2016, for example, police deployed Defense Technology tear gas and other crowd control weapons against Standing Rock activists. In 2014, police officers fired Defense Technology tear gas at anti-racism protestors in Ferguson, Mo., in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown. Specifically developed—and now banned—for use during war time, tear gas has become a ubiquitous less-lethal weapon, used by police departments throughout the U.S. to quell protests, demonstrations, and civil unrest.

Increased police use of tear gas against protestors led to a 2021 congressional investigation, which included requests for information from Safariland and two other major tear gas manufacturers. The investigation concluded that Safariland and other tear gas manufacturers know that their products are dangerous but knowingly take advantage of a lack of federal regulations to make a profit and retain “free rein to self-regulate.” The company noted this investigation as a risk to its business, warning its investors that such inquiries “may damage [its] reputation and may also result in potential legislation designed to regulate the various products sold by [its] brands.”

In addition to U.S. agencies, Cadre Holdings sells its products to thousands of military and law enforcement agencies in over 100 countries. In 2023, the company’s revenue from state agencies outside of the U.S. amounted to more than $97 million, or just over 20% of its annual revenue. The company plans to expand its international sales “as foreign governments face increasingly complex safety challenges and seek to replace legacy equipment.” Defense Technology, Cadre’s less-lethal weapons business, boasts that it equips “agencies addressing civil unrest worldwide,” and that it has “helped restore order in every major domestic civil disturbance in the last century.”

Beyond Palestine and the U.S., Safariland/Defense Technology tear gas has been used against protestors during Puerto Rico’s 2019 “Telegramgate” protests; 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey; 2011 protests known as the “Arab awakening” in Egypt and Bahrain; 2006 protests in Oaxaca, Mexico; and in Canada, Guyana, Iraq, Peru, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Yemen, as documented by Forensic Architecture.

Cadre Holdings sells its products to thousands of military and law enforcement agencies in over 100 countries. Its revenue from state agencies outside the U.S. amounted to $107.5 million in 2021, or 25% of its total revenue that year. This represents a 56% increase in Cadre's international sales from the previous year. The company plans to further expand its international sales "as foreign governments face increasingly complex safety challenges." Defense Technology, Cadre's weapon business, boasts that it equips "agencies addressing civil unrest worldwide," and that it "helped restore order in every major domestic civil disturbance in the last century."

The Israeli military regularly uses Defense Technology's tear gas and other weapons against Palestinian protestors in the occupied Palestinian territory. As documented by B'tselem, the Israeli military routinely uses the company's Triple-Chaser grenade, which consists of three tear gas canisters that separate on impact and disperse gas in a large area. Similarly, the Israeli police use Defense Technology's eXact iMpact 40mm sponge-tipped bullets against Palestinian protestors both in the occupied West Bank and within Israel's recognized international borders.

For example, the Israeli military and Border Police have extensively used tear gas and other crowd-control weapons to suppress Palestinian protests in Beita, a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. The protests started in 2021 in response to the construction of a new Israeli illegal settlement named Evyatar on Palestinian land. Between May 2021 and February 2022, over 5,000 protesters were injured as a result of being hit by foam-tipped or rubber-coated bullets, or from tear gas inhalation, on top of the nine protesters killed and 180 injured by live ammunition. As reported by Who Profits, a contract that was found in Beita identifies the ammunition as Safariland's eXact iMpact bullets.

In the blockaded Gaza Strip, Israel used large amounts of tear gas and Safariland-made foam-tipped bullets to suppress the 2018-2019 mass demonstrations known as the Great March of Return. B'tselem found numerous cases of death and serious injury resulting from tear gas use. At the same time, the Israeli military also developed the world's first tear gas drone, to drop tear gas on protesters while they were far away from the border wall. While designed specifically for use in Gaza, the Israeli police used these drones in 2022 to drop tear gas on Palestinian protesters on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. It is unclear, however, which company produces the tear gas for these drones.

Safariland and Defense Technology products are imported to Israel by Israeli company HOS Technology R&D, which lists among its clients the Israeli military, police, prison service, as well as the Israeli military companies IAI and Rafael.

Beyond Palestine and the U.S., Safariland/Defense Technology tear gas has also been used against civilian protestors in Puerto Rico's 2019 "Telegramgate" protests; in the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey; in Egypt and Bahrain during the 2011 "Arab awakening"; in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2006; as well as in Canada, Guyana, Iraq, Peru, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Yemen, as documented by Forensic Architecture.

Safariland and its CEO, Warren Kanders, have been the target of multiple campaigns over their role in supplying tear gas to military and police agencies in the U.S. and around the world.

In 2018, Brown University alumni launched a campaign demanding that the university cut its ties with Kanders, who is a Brown graduate and donor. A key demand has been to remove Kanders from his position on the Advisory Council of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. While the university has made no public comment on the issue, Kanders' name was removed from the Advisory Council’s webpage at some point before January 2021.

Following U.S. Border Patrol’s use of Safariland tear gas on families seeking asylum at the U.S.–Mexico border in 2018 (see above), another campaign targeted the Whitney Museum of American Art, where Kanders served as vice chairman. More than 100 museum employees sent a letter to the museum's leadership, calling on the board to consider Kanders' resignation. The campaign escalated in 2019, with dozens of art critics, academics, and others writing an open letter to museum leadership calling for Kanders' immediate removal. In April, hundreds of people protested the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Three months later, in July 2019, Kanders resigned from the board of the museum, saying he did "not wish to play a role" in the museum's demise.

In June 2020, just days after its role in the suppression of Black Lives Matter protests drew public attention, Safariland announced its plans to divest both of its weapons subsidiaries, Defense Technology and Monadnock. The company’s press release stated that, “Defense Technology's current management team will become the new owners of the business," and that the sale would be completed in the third quarter of 2020.

A year later, Kanders made Safariland part of Cadre Holdings, whose website does not identify Defense Technology as one of its brands. However, Cadre Holdings still lists Defense Technology as one of its subsidiaries

Safariland was awarded multiple contracts by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for Defense Technology products, including 40mm impact rounds and vapor grenades (an alternative to tear gas grenades), as recently as August 2023. In addition, public records requests for the AFSC’s Equipped for War report identified Safariland as selling Defense Technology weapons to California law enforcement agencies in January and February of 2021, as well as Monadnock batons in June and July of 2021.