Omaha police have agreed to stop carrying electric shock gloves in Nebraska’s largest public school district following intense backlash from parents, students, and community members, according to The Guardian.
Omaha Police Agree to Halt Electric Shock Gloves in Schools
Superintendent Matthew Ray requested on August 18 that school resource officers stop carrying the devices on district property after learning about them the previous week, as reported by The Guardian. The Omaha Police Department agreed two days later, according to The Guardian. Mayor John Ewing confirmed that the city honored the district’s option to opt out, stating that continued use would be counterproductive to their work together, as noted by Newsweek.
How the Devices Work and Where They Were Deployed
The devices are formally known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters, or G.L.O.V.E.s, manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC, from which the city purchased 40 gloves for roughly $66,000 in 2025, according to Yahoo and Iheart. Unlike Tasers, the gloves are worn on an officer’s hand, leave no burn or contact marks, and require direct physical contact with a person’s skin, activating when an officer presses a button, according to Yahoo and Iheart. Officers were required to give a verbal warning before touching the person for up to 15 seconds while delivering an electric shock, as stated by The Guardian and Iheart.
Omaha police used the gloves twice during the 2025–26 school year:
- At Omaha South High School, where an officer applied the glove to a trespassing student’s wrist for about two seconds after the student attempted to flee following a fight with a security guard, according to Newsweek and Iheart.
- At the district’s Integrated Learning Program—a special education program—where an officer deployed the glove twice after a student made threats, threw a chair that struck a security guard, and punched the guard, according to Newsweek and Iheart.
Most of the department’s 34 school resource officers had been trained and authorized to use them as a discreet de-escalation option, according to Newsweek and Iheart. Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Mayor Ewing defended the technology beforehand in a joint statement, calling it the safest use-of-force option in rare situations, as reported by Iheart. Even with the gloves removed from Omaha Public Schools, assigned officers will continue carrying standard equipment including Tasers, pepper spray, batons, and firearms, according to Yahoo.
Community Outrage and Mixed Regional Policies
Public backlash culminated at an August 18 school board meeting, where about 30 community members, parents, and students spoke out against the practice with no one speaking in favor of it, according to The Guardian and Iheart. Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School, told the board that the weapons create a barrier preventing students from trusting resource officers, as cited by The Guardian and Iheart.
Despite the ban within Omaha Public Schools, the policy is not uniform across the metropolitan area. The suburban Bellevue police department, which provides school resource officers at two Omaha district schools and its own Bellevue district, rejected the request and will continue carrying the gloves, according to The Guardian and Yahoo. Additionally, three other metro-area districts—Millard, Elkhorn, and Westside—also have Omaha police resource officers assigned to their buildings and have not yet restricted the gloves, according to Iheart.