Radley Balko
Investigative journalist on policing, forensics and criminal justice; wrote Rise of the Warrior Cop and writes The Watch.
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What they believe
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Bite-mark matching is junk science, and the courts have admitted it for five decades anyway.
To be clear, bitemark evidence is junk science. There has never been any scientific research to support the idea that bites on human skin can be matched to the teeth of one person, to the exclusion of everyone else.
radleybalko.substack.comSaid 1 Sept 2026This on korrents
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Recorded crime partly measures policing: a neighbourhood policed harder produces more crime in the statistics.
Particularly with gun and drug crimes, communities with more aggressive policing tend to produce more crimes in part because law enforcement polices them more aggressively.
radleybalko.substack.comSaid 8 Jul 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
4 November
29 October
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12 October
30 September
17 September
14 September
1 September
From one piece The framing of Chris Duncan 4 beliefs · radleybalko.substack.com
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korrents.com
A broken criminal justice institution survives precisely because it serves the people who run it.Their words
The old system stubbornly defied reform because it served the people in power.
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korrents.com
Letting prosecutors pick who performs an autopsy produces the findings prosecutors want.Their words
Prosecutors tended to choose doctors they could trust to give them the results they wanted.
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korrents.com
Forensic experts exposed as frauds, and the prosecutors who keep using them, face no consequences.Their words
And while some courts have ruled that Hayne and West aren’t credible experts, the two men never faced any real accountability.
+ 1 more
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korrents.com
Bite-mark matching is junk science, and the courts have admitted it for five decades anyway.Their words
To be clear, bitemark evidence is junk science. There has never been any scientific research to support the idea that bites on human skin can be matched to the teeth of one person, to the exclusion of everyone else.
9 August
20 July
8 July
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korrents.com
Recorded crime partly measures policing: a neighbourhood policed harder produces more crime in the statistics.Their words
Particularly with gun and drug crimes, communities with more aggressive policing tend to produce more crimes in part because law enforcement polices them more aggressively.
A guide to racism in the criminal justice systemradleybalko.substack.com
4 July
25 June
5 June
29 May
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Bite-mark matching is junk science, and the courts have admitted it for five decades anyway.
To be clear, bitemark evidence is junk science. There has never been any scientific research to support the idea that bites on human skin can be matched to the teeth of one person, to the exclusion of everyone else.
The framing of Chris Duncan Said 1 Sept 2026
Forensic experts exposed as frauds, and the prosecutors who keep using them, face no consequences.
And while some courts have ruled that Hayne and West aren’t credible experts, the two men never faced any real accountability.
The framing of Chris Duncan Said 1 Sept 2026
Letting prosecutors pick who performs an autopsy produces the findings prosecutors want.
Prosecutors tended to choose doctors they could trust to give them the results they wanted.
The framing of Chris Duncan Said 1 Sept 2026
Show 7 more
A broken criminal justice institution survives precisely because it serves the people who run it.
The old system stubbornly defied reform because it served the people in power.
The framing of Chris Duncan Said 1 Sept 2026
Recorded crime partly measures policing: a neighbourhood policed harder produces more crime in the statistics.
Particularly with gun and drug crimes, communities with more aggressive policing tend to produce more crimes in part because law enforcement polices them more aggressively.
A guide to racism in the criminal justice system Said 8 Jul 2026
The dominant American police interrogation method is good at producing confessions and bad at producing true ones.
The Reid technique works at getting confessions. But it’s less successful at getting accurate ones.
Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit? Said 24 Apr 2026
A confession stops the investigation that would have cleared the innocent person who gave it.
A confession, though, will sometimes preclude police from doing the very sort of investigation that would prove the confessor’s innocence.
Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit? Said 24 Apr 2026
Non-coercive interrogation still produces confessions, and more reliable ones, so coercion is not the price of solving crimes.
Canada and much of Europe have adopted different interrogation techniques — such as the PEACE method — which emphasize collecting reliable information over coercion. These approaches still garner confessions; they’re just more reliable.
Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit? Said 24 Apr 2026
An administrative warrant is not a warrant at all: it records an officer's own hunch instead of a judge's independent finding.
An administrative warrant is just a way for a law enforcement officers to memorialize a hunch on paper.
The Constitution is not a bargaining chip for a budget negotiation Said 16 Feb 2026
Constitutional limits on policing are not policy preferences to be traded away in a budget negotiation.
And that risks giving the impression that basic constitutional rights and restraints on police and executive power that date back to the Founding are, actually, negotiable.
The Constitution is not a bargaining chip for a budget negotiation Said 16 Feb 2026
Beliefs others hold too
An administrative warrant is not a warrant at all: it records an officer's own hunch instead of a judge's independent finding. 2 hold this
An administrative warrant is just a way for a law enforcement officers to memorialize a hunch on paper.
The Constitution is not a bargaining chip for a budget negotiation Said 16 Feb 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 39 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Recommends Unruly
Uh, David Mitchell, the British comedian, has a book came out, I think maybe a year or two ago called Unruly, which somehow manages to make a history of of medieval age British royalty, uh, interesting and funny. Um, and so it's kind of a review of sort of all the early British or English kings, um, but in his kind of style. Uh, which I found it very endearing.
youtube.com 27 Aug 2025
Liked Dan Snow's History Hit
Another terrific history podcast, this time with British historian Dan Snow.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Tides of History
Speaking of nerdy stuff, this podcast by historian Patrick Wyman is excellent.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Show 36 more
Liked The Taskmaster Podcast
Host Ed Gamble chats with current and former taskmaster contestants about a given episode and its component tasks.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Liked Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out
A fascinating glimpse into the comedy workd.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Liked Chameleon: Dr. Dante
It's an absolutely bonkers story.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Liked Alphabet Boys
No one owns the FBI informant beat like Trevor Aaronson.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Public Defenseless
But if you are into this stuff, as I am, it's endlessly informative.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Liked Witnessed
I particularly liked three seasons of this series from from Campside Media.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Crooked City: Youngstown, Ohio
I'll listen to just about anything hosted by Mark Smerling. This is one of his best.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Recommends The Kids of Rutherford County
A terrifying investigation into how one judge oversaw the illegal jailling of countless kids in a suburb of Nashville
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Recommends Ernie's Secret
From Wesley Lowery, Ernie's Secret is a historical investigation of the legacy of Ernest Withers
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Earwitness
She did an incredible job — better than I could have done — and uncovered a ton of important new evidence.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Proof
Proof is fearless journalism with a healthy dose of empathy.
radleybalko.substack.com 1 May 2024
Loved Dolly Parton's America
Dolly Parton's America is a wonderful dive into the career and influence of (almost) everyone's favorite country music icon.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked The Daily
Collectively, these roughly half hour episodes are the best cheat sheets on current events around.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Hidden Brain
Think of it as a science-backed self-help podcast disguised as a wonky show about the brain.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Revolutions
I'm still making my way through Revolutions, also from Duncan, which tells the story of various revolutions throughout history, from Haiti to France to the Bolsheviks and Simon Bolivar. It's also great.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved The History of Rome
So you have to be pretty into the history. But if you are, it's incredibly nourishing.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Trump, Inc.
This is the gold standard of audio journalism. Just top-notch stuff.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
I've learned a lot from this podcast.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
What others say about A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs →
Liked California City
An gobsmacking story from journalist Emily Guerin about how California real estate developers conned people
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Real Dictators
Host Paul McGann traces the arc of various dictators with narratives that typically span four to six episodes per dictator.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked The Ancients
But I've found most of them to be consistently great.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Fall of Civilizations
I can't think of a podcast in which the narrators' voice is a better fit with the subject matter.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Everything Is Alive
That's the goofy premise of this hilarious, surprisingly informative, often moving podcast.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved I'm Not a Monster
Baker is a seasoned reporter and a gifted storyteller, both of which make it difficult to stop listening to this one. I finished it in a few days.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Crimetown
I wish this one would come back for more seasons.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved In the Dark
Another landmark investigate podcast.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Criminal
Though it's often categorized as "True Crime," Criminal is thoughtful, nuanced, and addictively interesting.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Suspect
Shaer, who narrates the podcast, explores familiar themes like inadequate defense counsel, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and racial bias in a tight, disciplined arc.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Recommends Unreformed
Unreformed is a needed reminder that people whose lives were ruined by explicit, unambiguous, unapologetic, state-sponsored racism still live among us.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Recommends A Tradition of Violence
If you're looking for the definitive oral history of how criminal gangs came to dominate the L.A. Sheriff's Department, this is it.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked The Coldest Case in Laramie
Barker followed the facts where they led her, even as they took her someplace she didn't expect.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Serial
But I think you could make a strong case that the third season, documenting a year in the criminal court system in Cleveland, Ohio, is the most important podcast season yet recorded.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Liked Bone Valley
King is a dogged and thorough reporter, and despite the clear injustice he's laying out, his narration is calm and measured.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Recommends Murderville
I'll start this one by disclosing that my wife Liliana Segura is co-narrator and co-reporter on this one, along with her colleague Jordan Smith.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
their own
Loved Bear Brook
The first season of this outstanding podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio attempts to identify and figure what happened to four bodies found in a barrel in a state park.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Loved Admissible
It's as haunting and damning an indictment of the criminal justice system as you'll find.
radleybalko.substack.com 26 Apr 2023
Where they publish
Newsletter The Watch His newsletter on policing and criminal justice. Has a feed.
Recent
- Make bad things bad again 4 Nov 2026 Holding the Trump administration accountable isn’t about retribution. It’s the only way we survive.
- The Watch Podcast, Episode 2: An interview with Scott Colom 29 Oct 2026 The prosecutor and Democratic senate nominee in Mississippi is running an unexpectedly close race. He talks with me about criminal justice reform, corruption, and beating the odds.
- Her fiancé and caretaker was murdered by a far-right extremist. Then Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned the killer. My interview with Whitney Mitchell. 20 Oct 2026 For my new podcast, The Watch With Radley Balko, Mitchell and I discuss Abbott, the coming election, and the legacy of Garrett Foster, her late fiancé
Show 17 more
- Four years of The Watch: And an appeal for your support 12 Oct 2026 A thank you to the paid subscribers who make my work possible. You should join them!
- Roundup: Chris Duncan, civil liberties since 9/11, and Trump’s ongoing, under-the-radar immigration catastrophe 30 Sept 2026
- Breaking: DA demands DNA from Chris Duncan and Haley Oliveaux’s mother 17 Sept 2026 Louisiana continues to persecute a wrongly convicted man
- The framing of Chris Duncan: Part Two 14 Sept 2026 “God doesn’t let innocent babies die for no reason. Somebody has to be punished.”
- The framing of Chris Duncan 1 Sept 2026 Part One: “You won’t believe the videotape we have.”
- Roundup: Chris Duncan, reader response to suing Stephen Miller, our ongoing immigration nightmare 9 Aug 2026 Links, reader mail, and a NBC interviews me for a report on a wrongful conviction in Louisiana
- Suing Stephen Miller 20 Jul 2026 It's time to put everyone from Stephen Miller and Tom Homan to the most recent ICE hire on notice: a reckoning is coming
- A guide to racism in the criminal justice system 8 Jul 2026 A repository of studies, surveys, and reports on the disparate ways white, Black, and Latino people are treated by police, prosecutors, courts, and prisons
- The unremitting fire 4 Jul 2026 Our 250-year struggle is real, difficult, and as necessary as ever
- How The Free Press spun Trump's cruelty toward migrants as a heroic campaign to "save" kids 25 Jun 2026 As Bari Weiss guts CBS News -- and sets her sights on CNN -- the publication she founded continues to sanitize this administration's worst abuses
- How Bari Weiss's Free Press laundered MAGA talking points about refugees 5 Jun 2026 As Weiss rebuilds CBS News and 60 Minutes in her own image, her flagship publication continues to whitewash some of Trump's cruelest policies
- You can't hide your lying ICE: The covered-up killing of Ruben Ray Martinez 29 May 2026 It took nearly a year for the public to learn that a DHS officer killed a Latino man and U.S. citizen -- and that federal officers lied about how it happened.
- You can't hide your lying ICE: The shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis 22 May 2026 A Minneapolis prosecutor charges an ICE agent, exposing how DHS shamelessly lied after its officers shot an immigrant, tear gassed two kids, and put a bullet in the wall of a child's bedroom.
- Truth, power, and honest journalism 15 May 2026 Garry Tan, the CEO of venture capital firm Y Combinator, accused me of unethical reporting. This is my response.
- A conversation with Dawn Deaner, a public defender running for judge 26 Apr 2026 The longtime Nashville public defender discusses what she's learned from 20 years in the trenches, what needs to change, and what she would do on the bench
- Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit? 24 Apr 2026 An experiment with AI underscores the perils of police deception and the Reid technique
- You can't hide your lying ICE: The harassment of Francisco Longoria 8 Apr 2026 Federal immigration officers racially profiled a man, fired at his truck, raided his home at 4 am, and arrested him. Then they lied about it all -- both in public and in court.
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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