Laura Ballard

Infobox character
name = Det. Laura Ballard
caption = Det. Laura Ballard
first = ""
last = ""
cause = Still active
gender = Female
age = 40
born = 12 September 1968
death =
family =
spouse =
episode = 42 ("")
portrayer = Callie Thorne
creator = Tom Fontana

Laura Ballard is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on , She was played by Callie Thorne. At 29, Ballard first appeared in Season 6 having moved from Seattle to Baltimore for purposes of changing police departments. She came into the unit and quickly impressed Lieutenant Al Giardello, who saw her as a young and promising detective, and after a rocky start won over Detective Frank Pembleton as well. She was often partnered with Detective Stuart Gharty whom she generally got along well with.

In the episode "Saigon Rose" (6-6), Ballard learns the hard way that she's allergic to crab and is taken to the hospital for anaphylactic shock. At the end of Season 6, Ballard was shot along with Stu Gharaty and three other officers by Nathaniel Mahoney, also known as "Junior Bunk," in the Homicide Unit's office. Ballard suffered a serious injury to her foot, but fully recovered between Seasons 6 and 7 and began dating Detective Paul Falsone early in Season 7.

In the episode "Bones of Contention," Falsone questions Ballard about her ethnic heritage prior to bringing her home to dinner with his Italian mother, shortly after the start of their affair. She explains that Ballard is a Swedish name which belongs to her stepfather. She herself is Armenian, Assyrian, and, she says, "LBJ — little bit Jewish." In the same episode, Giardello warns Falsone about the regulations against intimate fraternization among members of the same shift, and Falsone and Ballard agree to stop seeing each other rather than risk discipline or a forced transfer out of Giardello's shift.

In the 1999 episode "A Case of Do or Die," Ballard reveals to Falsone that she was engaged once, but could not follow through with the wedding. In an emotional scene at the waterfront, Ballard says, "I walked out on him. It was two weeks before the wedding and I just took off. I didn't even tell him why."

Ballard became close friends with Detective Terri Stivers. The two of them worried about the perception of female cops, particularly after the beating of the unit's third female detective, Renee Sheppard. Although Ballard expressed her concerns to Sheppard gently, Sheppard became angry nonetheless. Still, the two detectives worked smoothly together on a case involving girl-gang members, and were pleased that they didn't have to call on their male colleagues to come in and "save the day."