FOIA redaction software that helps you work through the backlog.
Records requests pile up while staff redact decades-old scans by hand. DocArmor applies a template built on the FOIA exemptions to emails, memos and scanned files, so you can release public records faster without exposing personal details.
Free 7-day trial, 20 pages. No credit card required.
A growing backlog
Federal agencies received 1,707,197 FOIA requests in fiscal year 2025, up 13.7%, and the backlog grew 27% to 339,671. State and local public records offices face the same pressure with smaller teams.
A template built on the exemptions
DocArmor's FOIA & Public Records Exemptions template covers material exempt from public records release: classified markings, personal privacy, deliberative and privileged text, confidential business information, law enforcement sources, techniques and safety, bank examinations and well data. Its 15 fields follow Exemptions 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and all of them are on by default.
Public officials' names and official business usually stay. Context-aware detection keeps them, so the released record still says what happened.
What the 15 fields cover
For personal privacy under Exemption 6, Citizen & Personal Identifiers finds private citizens' names, home addresses, personal phones and emails, dates of birth, SSNs and other ID numbers, and license plates, along with the same personal details of government employees. Minor & Juvenile Information and Personal Medical, Financial & Personnel Data cover minors, health and finances, and the contents of personnel files.
For law enforcement records under Exemption 7, fields cover confidential sources and witnesses, undercover officers and people at risk, non-public investigative techniques, and security details such as keypad codes and server logins.
The rest cover classification and CUI markings (Exemption 1), confidential business information and contractors' unit pricing (Exemption 4), pre-decisional and privileged text (Exemption 5), bank examination findings (Exemption 8) and well data (Exemption 9). A catch-all field picks up anything that would identify a protected person or reveal exempt information once combined with what is already public.
Defensible, reviewable output
Every redaction is proposed by the AI and confirmed by a person. Redacted content is removed and checked on every page, and metadata, attachments and form values are stripped, so released records can't be un-redacted.
From the blog
- FOIA Exemption 5 and the deliberative process privilege, and where drafts leak
FOIA Exemption 5 shields privileged internal agency records, most often under the deliberative process privilege. Here is the test, and where drafts leak.
- FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(C), and where privacy leaks in released records
FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(C) protect privacy in agency records under two different standards. Here is how each works, and where released records still leak.
FAQ
Government & FOIA redaction FAQ
Does DocArmor support state public records laws as well as federal FOIA?
Yes. Start from the FOIA & Public Records Exemptions template and adapt it to your state's exemptions, or describe extra rules in plain English, for example “any home address of a city employee.”
Can it process old scanned paper records?
Yes. OCR reads image-only PDFs, typewritten pages and degraded scans, and a reviewer confirms each finding before release.
Can we process a whole request's records at once?
Yes, up to 25 PDFs and 1,000 pages at a time. Upload them as one batch with the FOIA & Public Records Exemptions template, and DocArmor works through them in the background and emails you when they're done. A person still reviews every document before release, and a larger release goes through as several batches.