Ex-Park Police Chief Wins Job Back After Eight-Year Quest

Here's a stunner: The Washington Post reports that the Merit Systems Protection Board has ordered that Teresa Chambers be reinstated as head of the U.S. Park Police within 20 days. Chambers has been fighting for her job for no less than eight years.

She was fired after the Post published an interview with her in which she said her 620-member police force needed 800 more officers to meet increased demands. Chambers also said the Park Police faced a $12 million budget shortfall.

This, in fact, is the third time her case has gone before the MSPB, as Chambers notes in a lengthy chronology on her website. Since she was fired in 2003, all of the people above her in the chain of command at the Interior Department have left their positions. Chambers herself took a job as chief of police of the town of Riverdale Park in Prince George's County, Md., just outside Washington.

All the while, Chambers doggedly pursued her case through administrative proceedings at MSPB and in federal court. And evidently her tenacity has paid off. Salvatore Lauro, who has has served as Park Police chief since Jan. 2009, apparently will have to step down to make way for Chambers to return to her job.