Interview: 

Teresa Chambers,

Chief, United States 

Park Police

 

By Daina Dravnieks Apple

Vol. 23 Number 4, 2002
   

Women in Natural Resources:  Thank you so much for making time for this interview.  Let’s start with the size of the National Park Service police force.  How large is the force?

Teresa Chambers:  Actually, my title is Chief of the United States Park Police.  There is no Park Service Police.  We are the National Park Service, and we have protection rangers as well as the United States Park Police. 

We have around 800 sworn positions, but we only have about 600 of them filled.  So, we’re stretched rather thin.  Our three main localities are here in Washington D.C., in New York City, and in San Francisco.  We are, more or less, the urban component of the National Park Service law enforcement team.  The primary locations we work in are in the cities I mentioned, where we’re protecting Ellis Island, Liberty Island, Fort Wadsworth, Federal Hall and other locations in New York City; and Fort Mason and the whole Golden Gate National Regional Park in the San Francisco area.  The United States Park Police also protect many of our “national treasures” in Washington D.C., including the Washington Monument, Lafayette Park and the White House, and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. 

We also have captains spread throughout the country that act as liaisons.  There are 386 national park units.  The bulk of those are protected by law enforcement rangers.  Our captains serve as liaisons, so if there are resources that the rangers need, or training issues, or any kind of interaction needed between the Superintendents and Regional Directors of the Park Service, and the United States Park Police, those captains are there to facilitate that interaction.

 

WiNR:  What kind of training do the officers take?  Is it similar to training that police officers on city forces go through?

 

Chambers:  Yes, the training is very similar.  We have a six-month academy in Georgia at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.  We also have more specific training.  That is, trainees go through the general training curriculum for federal officers, but also go through a more specific Park Police curriculum that integrates what we need for our officers.  Once they go back to their units, they are also with a field training officer for about another three months.  So, it takes the better part of a year to have an officer go through the entire training process.

 

WiNR:  Do you have specific requirements for admitting people into the training program?

 

Chambers:  Yes, we do.  We aren’t too specific about what would eliminate a person, because we want applicants to be totally honest with us when applying.  Frankly, though, we are simply looking for people of impeccable character.  We are looking for people with moral character that may be above the norm.

 

WiNR:  What about academic backgrounds, or other professional training and experience?  What are you looking for?

 

Chambers:  We prefer that our applicants have college education, but this is not an absolute requirement.  It will help an applicant get an edge as they move through the interview process, and it certainly helps with promotions, but it is just one part of the overall package an applicant presents to us and so it is not an absolute requirement.  We do require a high school diploma.

 

WiNR:  What is your professional background?

 

Chambers:  I spent 21 years in the Prince Georges County Police Department in the Washington D.C. area, and actually retired from that job in 1997.  I was a Major in that Police Department when I retired.  I then moved on to be Chief of Police in Durham, North Carolina, where I served until I became Chief of U.S. Park Police in February 2002. 

In Prince Georges County, I got experience in just about every component of police work.  I spent a lot of my time in patrol, both as an officer and in a command position.  The remainder of my experience there was in training and administration.  I worked for a while as a training instructor, and had a stint as training commander, as well.

 

WiNR:  What is your academic background?

 

Chambers:  I have a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland in Criminology and Law Enforcement.  I went to school after I was hired by the police department in Prince Georges County.  So, as a young police officer, I also went to school part-time, taking courses in between studying for promotions.

I also have a Master of Science degree from the Johns Hopkins University.  I was in a new program, working toward earning a master’s in Applied Behavioral Science.  The program had a subtitle; Police Executive Leadership Program.  It was spearheaded by the Police Executive Leadership Forum in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. 

I actually helped to build this unique master’s program.  I was on the advisory team that looked at what we needed to know as commanders that we hadn’t gotten on the job or through in-house training in our departments.  At first, it wasn’t going to be a degree program.  We simply wanted to have some training resources available for upper-level police managers.  But, when we met with the Dean and his staff at Johns Hopkins, and they advised us that we could develop the program into a graduate degree program. 

Our advisory team selected courses already available at the university, with an eye towards what we thought was useful to us as police commanders.  We came back with about 400 hours of courses!  The Dean and the university staff helped us build a fast-paced program that combined the best of all these courses into newly titled courses.  The first group of students to move through the program included some of members of the original advisory committee, and so I was able to earn my degree and help others by piloting this unique program. 

A student can only be admitted to this program through recommendation of his or her Chief of Police.  The program takes 20 months, and involves attending classes every other Friday and Saturday, all day.  Many departments cannot afford to pay for full tuition for students, but often there is in-kind compensation.  For instance, one of my officers is currently enrolled, and every other week, when she attends school Friday and Saturday, then she gets Sunday and Monday off from work, so that she does have time to rest and recoup. 

What is so very unique about this program is that although a group of police executives helped to craft it, it is not a police course.  It is an applied behavioral science course.  It is not at all what you might think of when you think “police + college,” that is, criminology and law enforcement.  It’s about running a business; budgeting, dealing with diversity and community issues, and all the other factors that leadership involves.  Academics are married with real life in this program, too.  Real case studies are brought to the classroom by the students, using anonymity and confidentiality, and so they are able to problem-solve for their agencies, while learning.

 

WiNR:  How old is the program, and has it been emulated elsewhere?

 

Chambers:  The first graduating class came through in 1996.  I think it will be emulated—there is keen interest around the country.  Also, the program has now been expanded to include a bachelor’s program.     

 

WiNR:  Do you have any natural resources background?

 

Chambers:  No, I don’t, so I am learning every day.  I really enjoy it!  As I travel for the agency, I try to visit national parks, and learn what I can.  A few weeks ago I was in Yosemite, and had a chance to increase my understanding of the role park rangers play in management.  I have a much greater appreciation now of the level at which rangers have to understand the both the natural resources and the cultural resources of the parks, the protection aspects of both, and the educational aspects.

            Just this past week I was in Seattle for a conference, and found time to visit Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, and North Cascades National Park.  As always, I came away with renewed respect for the fantastic job the National Park Service employees do.

 

WiNR:  Can you tell us about how law enforcement differs in a park setting from an urban setting?

 

Chambers:  From the Park Police perspective, I would say that there are more similarities than differences.  And, I think there really is no better proving ground for community policing, a current tool of many urban police forces, than our parks.  In a national park you have a superintendent, rangers and other personnel who are responsible for that park, and, like any city, there is also a tourist population.  Both the resident and visitor groups are our customer base.  Whether they live and work there or come to visit, they can help drive our initiatives and help us focus. 

So, community policing is at the core of what our Park Police do.  I also think that even though the rangers may not be trained to recognize what they do as community policing, that is truly what they are doing.  They listen to the campers, the hikers, and all those using the park, and find out what it is that those visitors need the rangers to address.  In that way, police work in any national park is very similar to police work in our nation’s cities and towns.

When the national park is in an urban area, then the police work becomes even more similar to that of an urban police agency.  There are three major commuter routes feeding into Washington D.C.; the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the Suitland Parkway, and the George Washington Parkway.  The United States Park Police are responsible for traffic direction and control, and accident investigation on these parkways.  One of my officers lost his life just a few nights ago during an accident investigation on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

So, in our urban parks we have the same issues that come up on city streets.  These include occasional drug trafficking problems and crimes against persons.  One difference, though, is that in our parks we have the luxury of not being distracted by other calls for service, and to focus solely on the park.  This results in a good track record with regard to keeping our parks safe.

 

WiNR:  Can you tell us more about the risk involved for United States Park Police?

 

Chambers:  Unfortunately, the National Park Service took a double hit just over this past weekend.  While I was traveling to the North Cascades National Park, I received a phone call from one of our Deputy Directors informing me that one of our protection rangers was gunned down chasing a drug suspect in Organ Pipe National Park in Arizona.  The park is on the U.S.-Mexico border, and Mexican authorities had chased two people across the border.  Our young officer, Ranger Chris Eggle, assisted in the pursuit and was ambushed.  I called back to headquarters in Washington D.C. to offer the assistance of the United States Park Police, not knowing that just twelve hours later I’d be making my own notifications.  By the end of that day, I was informed that Officer Hakim Farthing was out assisting the investigation of an earlier fatal accident on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, redirecting traffic away from the area so that investigators could complete their work.  He was protected by flares and traffic cones, but was hit by a drunk driver.  It was witnessed by several officers on the scene.  Officer Farthing was thrown some distance by the impact and was instantly killed.  The officer had been with the United States Park Police just since October 2000.

Officer Farthing left behind his mother and father, his sister, and his young son.  We have not lost an officer in the line of duty since 1988, and as sad as that event was, that officer lost his life due to a heart attack during a training exercise.  Prior to that, we had not lost an officer in the line of duty since 1972.  Our mood here, then, is somber.  As a police force, we have really not had to witness the violent death of one of our colleagues, and there is a lot of emotion here as we deal with this.

But, as with any police force, our officers have stepped up in the face of this tragedy, doing whatever needs to be done to support the family of Officer Farthing, and to support each other.  The policing network has grown over the years to help each other when tragedy does strike.  A group called Concerns of Police Survivors, founded several decades ago, makes sure that families don’t have to walk alone.  Law enforcement agencies have always striven to provide support for families of officers who have lost their lives, but most of us really cannot walk in their shoes, so to speak.  Most of us have never lost a family member to a law enforcement death, though we may have lost coworkers to such a tragedy.

 

WiNR:  Thank you for sharing this with us.  I’d like to ask you about the U.S.-Mexico border.  I recently spent time on a detail to the Coronado National Forest in the southwest.  It is the only National Forest that borders on Mexico.  The Forest Service, like many federal natural resource agencies, is struggling with funding problems that impinge on allocation of law enforcement resources where they are needed.  On the Coronado National Forest, I saw some incredible resource damage to fragile ecosystems that were heavily impacted by illegal immigration traffic.  Can you tell us about any unique problems you have in national parks in that border area?

 

Chambers:  Any of the federal lands in that area that border on Mexico provide essentially “open borders,” unlike the controlled border crossing areas.  It’s never been the focus of the Park Service to patrol the border for immigrants.  We are having conversations with the U.S. Border Patrol about provision of additional resources to the Department of the Interior to help secure our borders.  This is an ever-increasing concern, and may become a concern of the Office of Homeland Security.  The Park Service does not have the staffing to completely secure the nation’s borders that are within the national parks. 

 

WiNR:  One of the issues on the Coronado National Forest was the controversy surrounding the deaths of some illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, particularly from dehydration and exposure.  Humanitarian organizations proposed setting up water stations and painting them bright blue so they could be seen from a distance.  The National Park Service was also involved in this issue, and was asked to give a permit for such a water station.  Do you have any comments?

 

Chambers:  Park Superintendents have the authority and oversight in permitting, and law enforcement is not involved.  What I have observed, though, is that Superintendents and their staff always consider First Amendment rights and other relevant law and regulation when considering each issue.  And you’re right—sometimes it is controversial.

WiNR:  Can you tell us about some of the new and unique concerns that have impacted the Park Service since September 11, 2001?  For instance, there was a high alert issued [in Summer 2002] concerning threats to the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area, and ongoing concern for the Statue of Liberty.

 

Chambers:  Fortunately, when the media leaked the potential for a terrorist attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, the intelligence that this was based on was a day or more old, and more current intelligence had already lead to a de-escalation of that alert.  But, the event was indicative of the kinds of information that our agency and others have to review on a daily basis as to credibility.  That type of in-depth analysis has always taken place, but now it has new meaning.

And so, yes, we are always on guard.  But the key to fighting terrorism in this country is not law enforcement, but the citizens.  Similarly, in our National Parks, we recognize that all Park Service employees, from the Superintendents to the maintenance workers, are all key to meeting our law enforcement objectives of providing a safe environment for employees and visitors.  If each of us takes on personal responsibility, when “something just doesn’t look right,” of bringing it to the attention of law enforcement personnel, we do have a chance of averting another tragedy.

 

WiNR:  Do you have any dealings with the Capitol Police?

Chambers:  Yes, we have regular dealings with both that agency and Metropolitan Police Department in the District.  For instance, most events that occur on the National Mall cross jurisdictions.  Similarly, events and people often move from city streets into the parklands we patrol, and the opposite is also true.  About 23% of Washington D.C. is national parkland.  As National Park Service helicopter pilots like to say here, when you look out the window of the chopper, anything you see that’s green is ours!  United States Park Police have full authority in Washington D.C., and so action by our officers, when needed, is seamless.  We don’t have to worry about whether we have crossed any particular jurisdictional line.

 

WiNR:  Currently, there is a trend throughout the federal government to contract out some responsibilities as one way of reducing costs.  Recently, someone unkindly asked, “Why does the National Park Service have to have the largest lawn mowing force in the world?”  In response to this criticism, I think that the national park lands in the capitol are beautifully maintained and are a real credit to the nation.  Can you comment, though, on this out-sourcing trend and what it might mean for the United States Park Police?

 

Chambers:  I know that Director Fran Mainella is very sincere about thoroughly investigating competitive sourcing for the National Park Service.  Questions to ask when examining any action or process include, are we doing it less expensively?; can we change some things and do it less expensively?; or, are we doing it more efficiently and effectively? 

The United States Park Police don’t have many things that we can out-source, honestly, but I do know that this is an important issue throughout the National Park Service.  One example of competitive sourcing with our agency, though, is that we have contract guards working at some points in the Capitol.  For instance, at the Washington Monument we have security guards helping with screening visitors.  It does not take an officer trained in accident investigation, rape investigation, and the many other kinds of police work, to screen visitors.  It is a much better use of resources to hire security guards for this work.

 

WiNR:   It is common in federal natural resource agencies to be required to move relatively often during your career if you want to “move up.” For the average  officer, is there much need to move around to advance in their careers?

 

Chambers:  It changes from administration to administration.  In the past, moving to different geographic areas has not been the norm in the United States Park Police, but we are a nationwide organization and we need to start thinking about greater movement among areas for our officers.  My own philosophy is that if an officer does not take personal responsibility to move, then we do need to nudge them along, to foster career advancement.  My own mentors made sure that I moved into positions that were useful in terms of training and experience, even if I didn’t want or like them enough to seek them out on my own.  For instance, I had no interest at all in personnel management—to me, that was the furthest thing from being a cop!  But, I did work in that area for a time.  Not only did it give me an appreciation of that management area, it made me “marketable” when I wanted to apply for jobs as Chief.

So, it is the responsibility of the agency to make sure employees have a chance to excel and achieve.  The way to make that happen is to make sure employees have a wide array of skills, which are acquired by moving around.  That doesn’t necessarily mean moving between different field offices, but it can. 

 

WiNR:  Can you tell us about your professional plans and ambitions?  You have been in place for some years in your career in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.  Do you think you will stay in this area, or do you think you might work in another geographic area someday?

 

Chambers:  For me, every option is always open.  The last four years I was in Durham, North Carolina.  That area is only a four-hour drive from Washington D.C., but that had personal challenges for me because I have aging parents and in-laws still in this area.  So, coming “back home” to Washington was important to me and my husband. 

Without any doubt, this is the very best uniformed law enforcement job in the world!  I have the opportunity to protect the President and his residence, which is on park property; to protect the presidential retreat at Camp David; to protect the American icons that mean “freedom” to all of us—it is truly a privilege.  I have found that I rediscovered the patriotism that was instilled in me as a little girl.  I never knew how important it was to me, until I had a chance to compete for this job.  The United States Park Police is the oldest federal uniformed law enforcement agency in the country.  We are 211 years old. 

So, if there’s another job out there that’s right for me, I think it will just have to find me—I’m not looking!  It’s an honor to wear this uniform.

 

 

 

Daina Dravnieks Apple, a natural resource economist, recently became Administrator of Workplace Relations, a senior management position in the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Regional Office in California.  Her prior assignments include water resource policy analysis on the Policy Analysis Staff, and National Forest System strategic planner on the Resources Program and Assessment Staff.  She has served as Assistant Regulatory Officer in the Washington Office, and as Regional Appeals Coordinator, and on the Engineering staff in Region 5, San Francisco.  She began her Forest Service career as an Economist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station, Berkeley.

 

Her B.Sc. in Political Economy of Natural Resources, and her M.A. in Geography are both from the University of California, Berkeley.  She is a Follow of the Society of American Foresters and served as Chair of the National Capital Society of SAF.  She is also a Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa and served as President of Northern California Association, and as National Secretary.  She is a member of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society.