Nerve Staple

"Do I feel good about using a nerve stapler? Yes. Do I feel sorry for the guys I use it on? Nope, and neither do they. Would you rather I perforate them?"
~Celestial Securities Officer Cark Cranton

Humane. Mostly.

Nerve Staples are painless restraints meant to be inescapable until they're removed. The applicator (official documents insist that they not be referred to as 'weapons' or 'guns') is pressed against the back of a target's head. The trigger is pulled, and two thin spikes with Molecular-Ceramic tips are shot through the skull and into the brain. Colonizing Nanites in the shaft of the needles swarm the skull and manually deactivate the parts of the brain responsible for aggression, ambition, calculation, and creativity. The result is an instantly compliant subject with the Slave Mentality Disadvantage. The nanites contine colonizing the brain until a medical professional removes the needles, which signals a shutdown in the nanites and restores full brain function with no memory of the intervening time.

Terrifying

The process is 'painless' in name only. It is excruciatingly painful; agonizing, even, but the subject isn't capable of understanding that pain enough to really feel it. Even though the subject is left with no higher memory of the agony of their time as a puppet or the horror of watching their body compliantly obey, subjects do report potential side effects of flashbacks or intense nightmares. While those side effects are possible, one side effect that is always present is that a subject inevitably displays an intense and uncontrollable phobia of nerve staplers, which typically persist until therapy. Starlight Pharmaceuticals regards this as a feature, not a bug.

Effective

Most police on Venus don't carry restraints, they carry nerve staple applicators. A number of local agencies in other places do the same, and many labor-incarceration facilities prefer their workforce inmates to be stapled. Human traffickers and other unsavory types also enjoy their efficiency.