ST. LOUIS – St. Louis’s new Mayor, Cara Spencer, sat down with FOX 2’s Andy Banker for her first, in-depth, one-on-one interview.

In her first meeting with new Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe at the state capitol on Wednesday, one issue was brought up frequently: policing.

FOX 2 asked Spencer about policing and how the city has changed just three weeks after she took office.

“I think it’s hard to say,” Spencer said. “There’s a different vibe for me walking in the door because people are excited to see me, not that they weren’t before. There’s a new energy.  Certainly here in the Mayor’s office there’s a new vibe.”

She took that “vibe” to Jefferson City, Missouri, where about three weeks before she took over as St. Louis Mayor, the State of Missouri “took over” the St. Louis Department.  

Kehoe, a north St. Louis native, will soon appoint a panel of St. Louisans to a police board to oversee the department. Mayor Spencer will be one of five voting members. 

FOX 2 asked if she shared Kehoe’s view that St. Louis needs to boost police presence with a lot more officers on the streets, even as homicides trend significantly lower for a third straight year.

“To your initial question, ‘Do we need more policing?’ I think we have to have a response. We have to have enforcement when it comes to operating a vehicle as though it’s a weapon,” Spencer said. “That’s exactly what we’re looking at often times down here: driving a vehicle so recklessly we’re endangering lives. We’re actually seeing people lose their lives.  Last year, 2024, we had 23 pedestrians killed by vehicles. It is far too many. We’re increasing at a horrific rate compared to where we were just the year before, which was already far above the national average. I think policing is part of the solution, being creative about the enforcement, whether it’s impounding vehicles or putting boots on cars. We’re very serious about using every tool we can to curb that very, very dangerous behavior,” she said. 

Despite tackling many issues impacting the city as mayor, Spencer said that she feels encouraged. 

The weekend of April 19, more than 100 motorcycle riders rode recklessly, doing stunts and running red lights downtown. Police later made three arrests. 

“I met with our police chief (and) just this last weekend, they pulled several dirt bikes off the road that were driving egregiously dangerously. The chief knows that’s a priority for me,” Spencer said.

On May 3, police seized four dirt bikes and an ATV in another reckless driving case.

“Certainly, it helps the morale of our constituents, our residents, when they see our police department is able to take constructive action to address this really violent behavior,” Spencer said. “There’s reason to be talking about (homicide) numbers going in the right direction. Those are good things. I also want to be very mindful of the other indicators of crime. That does include some of these other things, like reckless driving. I want people to feel safer at the end of the day, not just to see the numbers going in the right direction but for people to really feel confident and comfortable coming downtown, being a part of our community and just feeling safer in their own neighborhoods.”

The full interview with Spencer will air on FOX 2’s Sunday political show, Hancock and Kelley, at 8:30 a.m.