Trucking company announces it won't deliver to cities pushing to defund police

A trucking company based in Illinois announced recently that it will no longer deliver to cities that are calling for police to be defunded.

Mike Kucharski, co-owner of JKC Trucking near Chicago, told Fox News last week that transporting valuable cargo into areas where a police presence may be reduced unnecessarily puts his drivers at risk.

"Our first priority is to support our drivers and their safety when they are on the road," Kucharski said during an interview on "Fox & Friends First."

Kucharski added that he is also concerned that his insurance coverage may change for delivering into states with reduced police presence when he renews his contracts at the end of the year.

"Another issue that I am seeing in the future is I have cargo insurance, liability insurance, fiscal damage insurance, and I am very curious how when I renew my contracts at the end of the year, if there is going to be language — if I am going to even have coverage going into these places," he said.

The cargo on board trucks makes them an obvious target for theft or robbery, and thus a potential insurance liability.

A CDL Life poll published in June found that 79% of drivers, if given the option, would refuse to pick up or deliver loads to cities with disbanded or defunded police departments.

Several respondents on the poll noted that many areas they pick up from or deliver to are already dangerous, and that now with several cities moving to diminish their police presence, the dangers have only escalated.

"This is not an area you need to act fearless and think you you'd look like a fool for saying 'no,'" one respondent said. "Imagine what kind of fool you [would] look like for driving into a hot spot and putting your life in danger."

Another added: "If something was to happen and you have to take matters into your own hands, you risk being prosecuted for protecting yourself."

USA Today reported late last month that half of the 258 law enforcement agencies surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum have slashed budgets or are planning to do so soon.

The outlet noted that much of the funding is being taken from accounts designated for "equipment, hiring and training" even as violent crime surges in a number of cities across the country.