AUSTIN (KXAN) — South Austin residents noticed a helicopter flying overhead as police and Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department worked to clean up homeless camps in a popular park Wednesday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Austin Parks and Recreation says trash was piling up in several homeless camps at Mary Moore Searight Park, so city employees scheduled a cleanup day.

The APD helicopter was scoping out trash from above.

“We thought they were looking for someone or something,” said Maddie Hale when she first saw Austin Police and one of their helicopters overhead.

When she realized they were cleaning up the park, Hale says she was excited.

“That’s a great thing if they’re going to come out here and try to clean this up to make it a better place, absolutely,” Hale said.

The mother of three, who lives nearby, says she used to take her kids to play at Mary Moore Searight Park all of the time. However, she says after seeing too much trash in the area and worrying about safety, her family quit coming as much as they used to visit.

“It’s very upsetting because we can’t enjoy anything here anymore,” Hale said.

She says each time her family comes to the park they see trash.

“We found condom wrappers, and you know, just dirty things,” Hale said. “There’s a lot of alcohol containers laying around and stuff like that, and that’s just not something I want my children to be around.”

Hale says her five-year-old even picked up a syringe that was lying on the ground at the park a while back.

“It was scary,” she said. “We literally went straight home and called the doctor to make sure that she didn’t need to go in and be tested for anything.”

Austin Parks and Recreation says cleanups like Wednesday’s don’t happen often, but it was getting so bad that employees had to come in and remove mattresses and other belongings. During such cleanups, Parks and Rec says APD and the Health Department come along to assist.

It’s a fine line to balance, with the cleanups displacing people from where they live. Hale, however, says it needs to happen to keep her neighborhood park safe.

“This is a place for families to go to and to enjoy themselves, and it’s just not fun anymore,” Hale said.