Policy based data shredding is provided to be executed in a storage controller. A logical volume stored on media, such as magnetic disk drives, may be assigned one or more possible shredding policies. Storing and executing the policies in the controller is more efficient than performing host-based shredding and requires the use of less valuable bandwidth between the host and the controller. In addition, the controller is aware of failures, degradation and offline status of each drive in an array, and is able to thereby terminate or modify a shredding operation if necessary. Each policy includes the number of write passes to be performed on the media location in which the volume is stored and the pattern to write on the media location. The policy may also indicate whether to update a parity area during each of a plurality of write passes or only on the first.