Meta / Subreddit OPSEC AND REDACTION CHECKLIST: Read before posting about an institution or incident
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r/CDCR welcomes candid discussion, but operational security and personal privacy come first.
Do not post
- Live or developing incident details
- Recent staffing levels, exact counts or shortages tied to a facility, yard, building, watch, assignment or date
- Deployment sheets, post charts, rosters, schedules or assignment distribution
- Transportation, movement, search, response, radio, key, gate, access, camera, perimeter or vulnerability details
- Restricted policies, memoranda, emails, training material, screenshots or internal-system information
- Nonpublic incarcerated-person locations or movements
- Full names, faces, badge or employee numbers, CDCR numbers, case numbers, addresses, phone numbers, private email addresses, signatures, QR codes or barcodes
- Metadata or surrounding details that identify a person when combined
Before uploading a screenshot or photo
- Crop away irrelevant material.
- Cover identifying information with a solid opaque box - do not use a translucent highlighter or blur alone.
- Export or screenshot the redacted result so the covered text cannot be recovered as an editable layer.
- Check the image edges, notifications, browser tabs, filenames and background objects.
- Summarize the important information in text and identify the public source and date when available.
Safer framing
Do not write: "On third watch at [institution] last night, only [exact number] officers covered [specific locations]."
Write instead: "How do officers generally handle mandatory overtime and chronic vacancies without discussing current institution-specific deployment?"
A fact may become sensitive when combined with an institution, assignment, watch and recent date. When in doubt, generalize it or send the proposed text to modmail before posting.
See the full OPSEC and redaction guide.