Chief Chambers Featured in New Book Profiling Patriotic Americans

Excerpts from Chapter 16, “The Honest Chief,” in Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out:

“Chambers, forty-six, was the first female chief in the Park Police’s 212-year history. Hired several months after 9/11, she recognized the importance of using the press to reassure jittery Americans that it was safe to visit our national monuments. The U.S. Park Police provides security and protection for the Statue of Liberty, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, as well as federal parkland in the D.C. region and areas near the Golden Gate Bridge. But a new Homeland Security directive mandating beefed up protection of the nation’s most-treasured icons severely strained the resources of Chambers’s overworked 621-member department. She addressed her safety, budget, and staffing concerns in an interview with Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold. In the December 2, 2003 article . . . she recommended doubling the size of her staff and increasing the department’s budget by $12 million.

“Chambers’s candor with the Post reporter apparently embarrassed her bosses because within several days they retaliated. Her gun and badge were taken away, and she was placed on paid administrative leave. On December 17, 2003, she received a formal written notice of her proposed dismissal . . .

“Chambers was floored by their reaction. She insisted that the charges were absurd. . . .

“Whenever she had previously attempted to bring up budget, staffing, and safety issues with her Interior Department bosses they would either ignore or downplay her valid concerns. . . . She and her husband are determined to keep fighting. ‘We will prevail,’ she says. ‘I mean, we’re just not budging. We’re not going away.'”
 

Patriots Act : Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out

Buy Now! The book includes 20 stories of, as the book cover states, "federal whisteblowers, peace activists, military veterans, members of the media, practitioners of nonviolent civil disobedience, and former high-ranking government officials." Each person profiled "share[s] a common commitment to speaking the truth, regardless of the consequences." Be sure to read Chapter 16 which is entitled "The Honest Chief."

Disclaimer: No proceeds from the sale of this book go to HonestChief.com, the WebMaster, or Chief Teresa Chambers - either directly or indirectly.