Chula cop is MADD darling

Officer Alicia Chudy during Shop with a Cop 2010.

Good things come in small packages and Alicia Chudy is a prime example.

At 4 feet 10 inches, Chudy stands out among her colleagues at the Chula Vista Police Department as the leader in DUI awareness, arrests and prevention.

This Saturday, the 28-year-old will be presented with the California State MADD Hero Award in Sacramento for her role in preventing drunken driving accidents in the city of Chula Vista.

With six years on the police force and four as part of the DUI enforcement team, this is just the beginning for Chudy who has always wanted to be a police officer.

“After about one year, I knew that I wanted to put my focus on DUI reduction,” she said.

Her accomplishments have won her praise from the city’s top cop.

“We’re extremely proud that she is being recognized at the state level,” Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano said. “She’s an asset to our department and the city in reducing accident related injuries and deaths.”

Chudy is the primary officer who coordinates awareness for sting operations, saturation patrols, grant writing and DUI checkpoints.

She has conducted 43 drug recognition expert evaluations, given six public DUI presentations and coordinated 30 DUI operations, which consist of checkpoints, saturation patrols, court stings and probation stakeouts.