Police in Omaha, Nebraska are catching a ton of flak after revealing that they deployed electric shock gloves on two separate students during the 2025-2026 school year. One of the students was enrolled in a special education program.
After the news broke, Omaha Superintendent Matthew Ray pleaded with the city police department to stop using the electrocution gloves against students. Though Omaha police refer to the gloves as their “safest use-of-force option” for subduing suspects, they agreed not to deploy the devices in schools anymore, according to the Associated Press.
Still, questions remain as to how much the district knew about the devices before they were deployed. Though Ray says he only learned about the gloves last week, local station KETV reported that police had informed school administrators about the devices as far back as 2023.
The district’s request comes as outraged parents and students speak out against the extremely controversial devices, which are being procured by local and federal law enforcement agencies at an alarming clip.
“I can’t even imagine walking down the hallway and seeing a peer of mine being electrocuted in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students,” Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School, said at a recent school board meeting, per the AP. “Yet, this is now a very real possibility. These are adults we are supposed to be able to trust, but these weapons create a barrier for our students to turn to resource officers when needed.”
As recently as 2022, the company behind the devices — ominously named “Compliant Technologies” — marketed the shock gloves as a “weapon” in its publicity material. Within the past few years, they’ve shifted, calling them “conductive distraction and de-escalation” devices.
In practice, the shock gloves seem like little more than re-branded tasers, although they’re much more “discreet,” as Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer told Government Technology in a statement.
The devices might be inconspicuous, but that doesn’t automatically make them humane. Or, on a purely practical level, effective tools for solving crime, as experts argue.
Speaking to Mother Jones about the gloves, senior policy analyst at the Center for Victims of Torture Yumna Rizvi referred to the devices as “inherently abusive equipment that facilitates torture,” adding that they have “no legitimate law enforcement purpose.”
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