Radley Prescott Balko (born April 19, 1975)[2] is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties.

[8] Balko's work on "no-knock" drug raids was profiled in The New York Times, and cited by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in his dissent in Hudson v. Michigan.

[9] Balko has advocated the abolition of laws criminalizing drunk driving, arguing that the "punishable act should be violating road rules or causing an accident, not the factors that led to those offenses.

[10] He has expressed his position against the judicial policy of civil asset forfeiture, arguing that it is a "practice contrary to a basic sense of justice and fairness".

[11] Balko has authored two books on the topic of increasing militarization in police forces, and a third on institutional racism and junk forensic science in the criminal justice system.