Fired Police Chief Reinstated 7 Years Later

WASHINGTON - Teresa Chambers, fired as U.S. Park Police chief in 2004, has been reinstated to the position and will earn more than six years of back pay, WTOP has learned.

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which hears civil service appeals, found the evidence against Chambers weak, and concluded the Interior Department retaliated against her.
 
Chambers was fired in 2004 after speaking to WTOP and other media outlets about her understaffed department -- saying she had been forced to cut back on patrols across the area because her officers were required to guard national monuments. She also talked about budget shortfalls.
 
In 2004, the National Park Service's deputy director, Don Murphy, said Chambers' comments broke two federal rules, one against public comment about ongoing budget discussions, the other prohibiting lobbying by someone in Chambers' position.
 
Chambers says the order is hard to believe.
 
"I found myself for a greater part of the day, sitting and staring at the order and the words that were on there reinstating me," she says. "From stunned silence to laughter to...just the head spinning of what the next steps are."

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