“North Canton is a very peaceful part of Ohio. The community is small enough to get together and create amazing things. I feel very safe in North Canton and recommend new families to move into the area. Not only are the people around you kind, but the schools in most parts are spectacular.” 

            This Niche reviewer boasts about a 6 square mile town in Stark County with 17, 842 people. A safe haven nestled between Canton and Massillon for families and elderly folks concerned about the rising crime in each city.  

            91.9% of North Canton residents are White. In 2020, 58.5% of residents of Stark County voted for former President Donald J. Trump.

            The two sources of North Canton pride are their schools and their safety services. Specifically, their very own, North Canton dispatch center. 

            People, especially the above average elderly population, love North Canton because they feel safe in North Canton. 

            When the North Canton City Council held a special meeting for Ordinance 60-2024 residents of North Canton, motivated by disinformation that had spread from police officers, former city officials, dispatch callers, and union attorneys to the general community, showed up to protest and threaten the use of their democratic tools 

            Ordinance 60-2024 is, “an ordinance authorizing the Mayor of the City of North Canton to enter into a Service Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the Regional Emergency Dispatch (RED) Center for the purposes of providing Emergency Dispatching Services.”

            The current dispatch center only services North Caton residents has 9 full-time personnel, 8 dispatchers, 1 lead dispatcher, and 4 part-time staff. The center does not receive enough calls to keep dispatchers occupied during their shift and is a major money pit for the city. 

The City Council was hoping to regionalize the dispatch center with neighboring cities, Jackson and Canton, as a more cost-effective solution in order to save their residents tax money. As of 2024, 40% of the North Canton city budget goes to safety services. 

What made the seventy-five North Canton residents who came to protest at the city council meeting most resistant to this plan? 

Disinformation. 

Disinformation is deliberately spreading something that is not true. 

Rampant disinformation invaded two things specific to the experience of North Canton residents: alleys and the YMCA. 

            Many North Canton residents live on more obscure alley roads. These individuals had been told by anti-regionalization citizens and union lawyers of the North Canton dispatch center that the regional dispatchers would not be able to find their homes. A large theme across speakers was that regional dispatchers meant people would not be able to be found by safety services. 

            Beyond alley roads, many speakers referenced what had become beholden as a cautionary tale among anti-regionalization citizens. On May 23, 2024, North Canton police officer Todd Shafer was at the North Canton dispatch center when he heard a call come in for a 16-year-old boy that was not breathing on the North Canton YMCA basketball court. Shaffer was at the scene in 2 minutes and was able to perform chest compressions, ultimately saving the boy’s life. 

            The consensus amongst anti-regionalization citizens was that if the dispatch center had not been in North Canton that boy would have died. The alternative ending of this story had been repeated as fact by many individuals trying to drum up opposition to regionalization. This story contributed to the larger theme of, “I want my dispatcher caller to know my name and for our kids to go to school together because that’s what makes North Canton, North Canton.” 

When it comes to questions of whether or not you have the support to survive a life-threatening emergency, disinformation can generate a great amount of fear. Political scientists, Ethan Porter, and Thomas J. Wood, identify fact-checking as a successful strategy to stop and correct misinformation and disinformation.

  Liam Ott, Clerk of Council and Administrative Assistance, did his best to employ fact-checking and to address the emotional fears of citizens with facts he had gathered while writing the proposal. 

His responses sounded like: 

            “I promise they will be able to find your house.” 

            “The response time will be just as good.” 

            “North Canton officers will get to know the regional dispatchers just as well.” 

            “North Canton dispatchers will have a job at the regional center I promise.” 

However, North Canton citizens’ fears could not be quelled by responsible officials’ factchecking and led to mass threatening of democratic tools against city council members. 

Many residents threatened to mobilize their friends and neighbors to vote against a fire station bond levy on the November ballot. Others threatened to vote for running city council member’s opponents. At the height of the tension in the meeting, a former North Canton city councilman claimed that he was going to run again to show the current city council how a city should be run. 

Ultimately, the city council voted to table the proposal and explore solutions that could make the existing dispatch center more cost effective without regionalizing. 

In one view, this meeting was a demonstration of healthy mechanisms of democracy at the local level. Individuals showed up to address their elected officials and effectively practiced vertical accountability. The ultimate decision reflected the request of the seventy people in attendance. Citizens referenced the democratic tools available to them: ballot initiatives, voting out their councilmember, and referendums. 

The glaring issue was that these democratic actions were largely motivated by fear that was generated by disinformation. Disinformation that had passed from more informed citizens – police officers, dispatch callers, union lawyers, and people who in general disagreed politically with the city council – trickled down to more vulnerable individuals, elderly folks with complicated addresses and grandmas with grandsons who play basketball at the YMCA. 

This spread of disinformation made these citizens of North Canton lose trust for the city council that was supposed to be looking out for their interests, and it prevented them from believing the city council when they promised that they were.