AUBURN – Last week’s stabbing outside a downtown park has police ready to crack down on transients living in camps there and around the city.

Police Chief Phil Crowell told city councilors meeting on Monday that officers are stepping up enforcement in remote or hidden areas that attract a criminal element and transient squatters.

Those areas include Moulton Park, the open space off Main Street, where 26-year-old Casey Stanley was stabbed Wednesday.

Other areas include West Pitch Park, immediately west of the Great Falls, and wooded areas along the Androscoggin River and North River Road.

“They have actual campsites, with tents and fires and cooking utensils in some of these places,” Crowell said. “We’ve known about these places, and they do get patrolled. But the challenge has been that some of them are on private property.”

Crowell said his officers have contacted most of the private property owners and have worked out agreements to go on to their land.

Officials from the District Attorney’s Office have toured those places as well, he said.

Crowell said officers will issue warnings to transients first, providing lists of area social services and helping those people find help. People found at the transient camps a second time will be issued a criminal summons.

Offenders caught a third time will be arrested.

“You can walk down Center Street and smell the pot smoke coming from some of these places,” he said. “It’s hard to miss, and I know it’s not something new.”

Councilors said they approved of the action.