Shock Gloves Already Deployed in 29 Omaha Schools After Two Student Uses

School resource officers in 29 of 34 Omaha-area public schools carry the G.L.O.V.E., a wearable device that delivers an electrical impulse through direct skin contact. It has been used twice on students during the 2025–2026 school year. At the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing a procurement of up to $20 million for the identical product line from Compliant Technologies. The technology is no longer theoretical in Omaha classrooms. It is already operational.

The G.L.O.V.E. — Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — is worn like a standard patrol glove. A wrist switch activates contact pads that deliver a low-output electrical stimulus when pressed against skin. There is no projectile and no stand-off distance. Compliant Technologies markets the device as a lower-force option for law enforcement, corrections, military, EMS, and security settings. Schools do not appear on the manufacturer’s primary application list.

Omaha Police purchased roughly 40 pairs for just under $66,000 in 2025. City council approved the buy on the consent agenda. Twenty-nine school resource officers across the Omaha, Westside, Millard, and Elkhorn districts are trained and authorized to carry them; the remaining five have training pending. The devices are limited to middle and high schools.

Both deployments this school year involved students.

At Omaha South High, a trespassing student from another school fought a security guard and attempted to flee. An officer applied the glove to the student’s wrist for approximately two seconds to gain control.

At the Integrated Learning Program, a specialized setting for students with social, emotional, behavioral, and learning deficits, a student made verbal threats, threw a chair that struck a security guard in the head, and punched the guard. The school resource officer deployed the glove twice — once for about one second, then again for two to three seconds — before taking the student into custody.

Omaha police and Mayor John Ewing reviewed both incidents through the chain of command and the department’s Safety Review Board. Both uses were ruled within policy. No injuries were reported by the school nurse in the second case.

Omaha’s guidelines reportedly restrict use on small children, visibly pregnant individuals, and the elderly. The existence of those limits acknowledges the potential for harm. One of the two school uses occurred inside a program specifically designed for students with behavioral and learning challenges. Manufacturer materials have also flagged caution around use on small children.

The same device is now under federal consideration. Department of Homeland Security notices describe plans for ICE to acquire “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” worth up to $20 million for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel, with deliveries targeted around early 2027. The product is identical.

What began as a local less-lethal option for school resource officers has already produced two student applications and is simultaneously moving toward large-scale federal adoption. Omaha parents and school board members learned of the deployments largely after the fact. The technology is inside the schools. The federal procurement is in motion. The policy questions that follow are no longer abstract.