On May 18, 2020, the Roseland Park City Council banned the box after unanimously approving a new law that prohibits city agencies from inquiring into applicant criminal history, except for positions related to public safety. Now, city employers are prohibited from asking about applicant criminal history on employment applications or conducting background checks while processing an application.
Roseland Park joins Johnson County, which banned the box from county job applications in 2016, and the State of Kansas, which banned the box for most state positions in 2018.
Ban the Box is a modern civil rights movement advocating for the passage of laws throughout the country designed to protect individuals involved with the criminal justice system from unfair and systematic discrimination based on their criminal history. The principal aim of Ban the Box is the passage of laws removing the checkbox asking if applicants for work have a criminal record on hiring applications. Often, Ban the Box laws regulate when and how an employer can consider this information, and some Ban the Box laws provide penalties for applicants who suffer a civil rights violation. It is unclear what enforcement mechanism’s Roseland Park’s new Ban the Box law contains.
