Erroll Southers

Erroll G. Southers is an American expert in transportation security and counterterrorism. He is the author of Inside the Castle Walls: An American Journey Through Espionage, Counterterrorism and Government (2026) and Homegrown Violent Extremism (2013). Southers is the Associate Senior Vice President for Safety & Risk Assurance at the University of Southern California (USC) and a Professor of Practice in National and Homeland Security. He is also managing director for counterterrorism & infrastructure protection at TAL Global Corporation. He previously served as the president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, as well as assistant chief of the Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) police department's office of homeland security and intelligence. He is a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was deputy director of homeland security under California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2009 he was nominated by President Barack Obama to become head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but Southers withdrew.