| Chief Chambers' Concerns Echoed Again, This Time by High Ranking Department of the Interior Official July 2005 - In anticipation of an oversight hearing by members of Congress, the Department of the Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and Security, Larry Parkinson, spoke with reporters. His concerns, quoted by the Carlsbad Current-Argus and other print media, echo information confirmed by Chief Chambers to the Washington Post in an article in December 2003 - information covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act and which, nonetheless, served as the basis for her removal from federal employment.
What the Washington Post attributed to Chief Chambers:
Chambers said traffic accidents have increased on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, which now often has two officers on patrol instead of the recommended four.
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The Park Police's new force of 20 unarmed security guards will begin serving around the monuments in the next few weeks, Chambers said. She said she eventually hopes to have a combination of two guards and two officers at the monuments.
What the Carlsbad Current-Argus attributed to Deputy Assistant Secretary Larry Parkinson:
Shortly afterward, the park increased the number of rangers from five to 16 and began building a vehicle barrier, said Larry Parkinson . . .
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While the efforts have helped, Parkinson said, "It's still bad."
What the Washington Post attributed to Chief Chambers:
"It's fair to say where it's green it belongs to us in Washington, D.C.," Chambers said of her department. "Well, there's not enough of us to go around to protect those green spaces anymore."
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In the long run, Chambers said her 620-member department needs a major expansion, perhaps to about 1,400 officers.
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She said a more pressing need is an infusion of federal money to hire recruits and pay for officers' overtime.
What the Carlsbad Current-Argus attributed to Deputy Assistant Secretary Larry Parkinson:
"Everybody has had to rethink and redeploy resources," he said. "If you ask anybody if they have as much money as they would like, they would say, 'No, we want more.'"
HonestChief.com finds itself wondering if Deputy Assistant Secretary Larry Parkinson will be issued a gag order, escorted from federal property by armed special agents, and fired several months later. We hope not. What he said is proper and needed to be said and is no different than what Chief Chambers confirmed to the Washington Post reporter.
HonestChief.com can only hope that this latest disclosure by a top Department of the Interior official will cause Congressional members to call for the return of Chief Chambers to her job as Chief of the United States Park Police.  
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