Though nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Transportation Security Administration in September, Erroll Southers '78 withdrew his name from consideration Jan. 20 amid concerns in the Senate about the potential unionization of TSA employees and inconsistencies in his testimonies about his past.
Southers is currently the assistant chief of homeland security and intelligence for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, as well as associate director of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events.
Obama nominated Southers to oversee the TSA as assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in September, but his nomination was put on hold before the Senate's winter recess. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who placed a hold on the nomination, has expressed concerns about the unionization of TSA personnel.
After the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on Dec. 25, Senate leadership tried to speed up the confirmation process, according to a Jan. 7 article in the Washington Post. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., placed another hold on Southers' nomination pending a White House response to inconsistencies in Southers' testimonies, the newspaper reported.
Southers provided two different accounts to Congress about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed federal records in 1987 and 1988. While he initially told the Senate he asked a friend to access the databases for him, he later recounted that he had accessed the database himself, according to the Post.
"I made, obviously, an error of testimony as it related to my recall," Southers told The Herald.
Southers withdrew his nomination because he had "become a distraction," he said. "I didn't want to remain in a politicized environment as I was trying to deal with a real threat, and that being terrorism."
"There was a reason for my demise that was beyond my control," Southers said. While he was "really looking forward" to taking on new challenges at the TSA, he plans to stay in his current positions in Los Angeles for the time being and continue to "be a part of the solution" in counterterrorism efforts, he said.
Though Southers graduated from Brown with a degree in biology, he switched to law enforcement work after a half-semester of medical school. "Talk about a 180-degree move," he said.
Southers was active in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Orientation Welcoming Committee while at Brown, he said.
Southers encountered an "unusual number of Brown alums" in the Department of Homeland Security, he said, including two of the three people who conducted his first interview there.
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