Omaha Police Chief Holds Line on Shock Gloves After Meeting With 40 School Resource Officers
Updated
Updated · WOWT · Aug 20
Omaha Police Chief Holds Line on Shock Gloves After Meeting With 40 School Resource Officers
3 articles · Updated · WOWT · Aug 20
Summary
Chief Todd Schmaderer said Thursday’s meeting with Omaha Public Schools leaders did not change anyone’s views on shock gloves, even after OPS asked officers to stop carrying them in district buildings.
Three years of emails reviewed by WOWT show OPD discussed the gloves with OPS school safety supervisor Donald Morrison from January 2023 onward, but Superintendent Matthew Ray does not appear in the chain.
Two uses on Omaha students during the 2025-26 school year and a March 2025 email questioning legal review under school corporal-punishment policies have sharpened scrutiny of how the device was approved.
Forty pairs were funded through asset-forfeiture money after failing in two budget cycles, then approved by the City Council in June 2025 on a consent agenda with no public opposition.
OPS has now barred the gloves on its property and OPD agreed, but Bellevue police refused for the two OPS schools it serves, leaving the broader debate over police tools in schools unresolved.