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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) is concerned about a new trend officers are seeing in the homeless community. They say a spike in violence in the homeless camps along Fountain Creek has led people who live there to arm themselves with weapons.

Police estimate there are about 200 people living in the homeless camps. They say just this week there has been an increase in violence. One assault was so severe a homeless woman had to be rushed to the hospital.

Now the homeless are arming themselves to defend against attacks.

Police say it's not hard to find weapons among the camps along Fountain Creek. And they worry if the wrong set of circumstances come together someone could be seriously hurt.

CPSD says one of the reasons police worry about homeless people with weapons is because the public is staring to treat the camps like a tourist attraction.

"One gentleman told me, 'Well, I wanted to show my friend the tent cities,' so it's becoming like they are people in the zoo. People are stopping, pointing fingers, taking pictures," said CSPD officer and Homeless Outreach team member Brett Iverson.

Add that to a rising number of assaults within the homeless community and cops worry the situation could boil over.

"Just two days ago there were reports of three cases and another one by a homeless male on a homeless female. It put her in the hospital -- a very large cut over her eye," said Iverson.

Attacks like those have led others here to get weapons to protect themselves.

"Now we are getting homeless individuals that are arming themselves. One guy had a knife. He showed me his knife and said, ‘Next time he comes around I’m going to take care of business,'" said Iverson.

It is estimated that two-thirds of the people who live in the camps are mentally unstable and often drink heavily to deal with their illnesses. So police fear a deadly cocktail of booze, mental illness and morbid curiosity could lead to violence.

"They get upset, they start drinking, self medicating, and then you're going to get the wrong person coming in at the wrong time and something bad is going to happen," said Iverson.

Police say a proposed ban on all camping on public property could be a useful tool to help them ratchet down the growing tensions.

City council is set to take up the matter next month.