Radley Balko

Radley Balko is a writer and investigative reporter for the Washington Post, where he covers civil liberties and the criminal justice system. His book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces, published in July 2013 by PublicAffairs, has received widespread praise, including from the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and the New York Journal of Books.

Previously, Balko worked as an investigative reporter for the Huffington Post, a senior editor for Reason magazine, and a policy analyst for the Cato Institute. His work has been cited by the Supreme Court in the case Hudson v. Michigan, and by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Edmonds v. Mississippi. Balko is credited with bringing national attention to the case of Cory Maye, a black man on death row in Mississippi for shooting and killing a white police officer during a botched drug raid on Maye’s home. Maye was eventually released from prison in 2011.

Balko’s November 2007 investigative report on Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne contributed to Hayne's termination. In 2011, the L.A. Press Club named Balko "Journalist of the Year."

Balko has been published in Playboy, Time, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, Forbes, ESPN, the National Post, the ABA Journal, and numerous other publications. Balko has also appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, HBO, Showtime, and NPR.

Balko graduated from Indiana University with a degree in journalism and political science.