Sacked U.S Park Police Head Teresa Chambers Bounces Back

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2011— -- Eight years ago Teresa Chambers made headlines for being the first woman to head the U.S Park Police in its 213-year history. A year later the headlines read a bit differently -- Chambers had been fired.

"I mean, there's nothing more humiliating. You could have marched me down the hall naked and it would not have been as humiliating as taking my badge and my gun," she told ABC News' Claire Shipman.

On Dec. 2, 2003, Chambers told reporters that Congress forced her to scale back patrols so that officers could guard the national monuments around Washington in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

This meant that some police work was being overlooked.

The Washington Post cited her saying that residents in neighborhood areas were complaining of homeless people and drug dealers populating the smaller parks, and traffic accidents on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway had increased.

Chambers also revealed that the Park Police had a budget shortfall of $12 million -- money she said was necessary to fulfill the department's mission. She said she feared visitor safety could be affected as a result.

Just three days after she made the remarks, Park Service officials suspended Chambers. Soon after, the deputy director of the Park Service proposed both her removal and pressing charges against her for releasing sensitive information, insubordination and breaking the chain of command.

"I asked, 'What do you believe that I've done wrong?' and the answers that I got were, 'Well, we're looking into that', and of course I pressed forward, so I asked what it means that they're looking into it, and finally, they reluctantly said, 'Well it's in the Washington Post,'" Chambers told ABC News.

"I asked, 'What's in the Washington Post?' They said 'Well, the violation of a federal statute.' I asked, 'What federal statute?' And finally, under advice of his counsel, my boss quit telling me anything, and I was sent home with no allegation of anything," she said.