A 22-year-old woman out walking her dog was pushed to the ground and punched two men.
Officers in Caerphilly are appealing for information following the assault in a wooded area opposite the Moat House pub, St Martins, Caerphilly at around 11.15am on Wednesday November 28.
The woman was walking her dog in the woods when she was approached by two men. One of them pushed her to the floor and punched her. Both then ran towards the Llon Y Llyn entrance to the woods.
The woman suffered bruising to her cheek.
One of the men is described as white, aged 18 to 22, 5ft 8ins, wearing a black hooded top with the hood pulled up, black bottoms, and a black baseball cap with a green badge on the front.
The other man is described as white, aged 18 to 22, 5ft 8ins, with short mousey brown hair, wearing a grey hooded top with the hood up and grey jogging bottoms.
Anyone with information, or who may be able to identify the men, should call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
This sort of ` opportunistic` and what appears to be, from the details contained in the observer report, a ` random` assault on this young lady, is just the sort of incident that the newly elected Crime and Police Commissioner, Ian Johnston, has said he is concerned with, he says it is all about the changes in the Gwent Chief Constables priorities relating to the way the traditional ` Patrolling` roles of Constables has altered.
This traditional role of Police Constables has been replaced by Community support Officers, many of whom do not know the Hot Spots of criminal activity in a given area, they have a subordinate role in fighting crime, they have an important ` support` role and as such are not trained and not selected in the way traditional Police were.
These CSo`s, whilst fulfilling a role in the community, do not always interact with the public, which was the original role they were created for, as a result, and by not talking to the public and simply `passing the time of day` and taking a `proactive` position with them, they are missing the opportunity to properly know the area in which they are working.
There is also a very wide variance in respect to the way CSO`s apply the duty which they have in law enforcement, and in Gwent that is normally limited to offenses under local and other by laws, the duties of car parking attendants issuing fixed penalty tickets, and replicating the duties of Caerphilly Council Street Wardens issuing fixed penalty tickets for littering and last of all, fixed penalty tickets for dog fouling.
It is therefore no wonder that they have not properly filled the void left by those Police Constables who once traditionally patrolled the streets and lanes of the towns and as such act as a ` deterrent` to `would be` `opportunist` law breakers of the sort who appear to be involved in this case.