Durham is batting 1.000 with the U.S. Park Police. The federal agency took a flier and hired away Durham Police Chief Teresa Chambers in 2001, but that didn’t work out real well:
The Park Service placed Chambers on administrative leave in December 2003 after she told The Washington Post that her 620-member police force needed 800 more officers to meet increased demands. She also said the Park Police faced a $12 million budget shortfall.
After the article was published, Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy put Chambers under a gag order, placed her on administrative leave and proposed to remove her from her position. She was officially fired last July [2004].
When she left Durham she took her top toady, Dwight Pettiford, who was named head of the U.S. Park Police after Chambers was axed. Well, now Pettiford has been put on the chopping block himself:
U.S. Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford yesterday was relieved of his duties while a panel of federal officials convenes to resolve problems within the agency that were identified last month in an inspector general’s report, officials said.
