RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 4 sourcesOmaha mayor said police have honored the school district's decision to ‘opt out’
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Police officers serving Omaha’s largest public school district will no longer be equipped with electric-shock gloves after the superintendent requested that the initiative be suspended this week, the mayor said.
The prohibition across middle and high schools comes after reporting by The Associated Press disclosed a plan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to distribute the equipment, known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter or G.L.O.V.E. In recent years, select detention centers have also utilized these items.
On Tuesday, Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray requested that local law enforcement stationed in facilities, known as school resource officers, stop using the gear. Speaking at a school board meeting on Monday and in a letter sent to the community, Ray explained he had discovered the gloves’ existence only the previous week, ahead of Wednesday’s first day of term.
The Omaha Police Department held a news conference last week in which it demonstrated the glove, saying it quickly achieved compliance and control with little to no force. The gloves were used twice during the 2025-2026 school year, police said.
It was not immediately known if other school districts have used them.
At the school board meeting, about 30 people spoke out against police using the gloves. Residents and board members alike said they were appalled at the practice. No one spoke in favor of it.
“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,” said Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School. “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.”
Ray said the district recognized long-standing relationships with law enforcement partners and the important role school resource officers have in promoting school safety. Continued use of the gloves “would be counterproductive to our work together,” Ray said.
Mayor John Ewing Jr. said police have honored the school district's decision to “opt out.” The Omaha Police Department said officers will continue to carry tasers, batons, OC spray and firearms.
Most of the Omaha Police Department's 34 school resource officers had been trained and were allowed to use the gloves, the mayor and Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said in a statement.
“We believe it is the safest use-of-force option in the rare times when it is used,” the statement said.
In 2025, the city's police department agreed to pay Compliant Technologies LLC, which manufactures the gloves, about $66,000 for 40 gloves, according to the contract.
Officers were expected to give warning before using the gloves and then touch the person for up to 15 seconds while the electric shock was delivered, the statement said.
The devices activate when an officer presses a button. The gloves must touch someone’s skin directly to produce voltage that causes pain, which is intended to make people compliant if they are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.
In the 2025-2026 school year, an officer used the glove in one case to stop a high school student from another school from trying to escape after fighting with a security guard, according to the statement. In the second case, the glove was used on a student who made verbal threats and threw a chair at a school security guard, striking the guard in the head, the statement said. The student also punched the guard in the head, it said.
Omaha Public Schools is the largest district in Nebraska and serves more than 50,000 students, according to its website.
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