Gwent Police are inviting people living in rural areas to act as their ‘eyes and ears’.

A spokesperson explained that often it’s the community who work and live in the small villages and hamlets within Monmouthshire who provide the police with their most valuable intelligence and information by noticing if something or somebody is acting suspiciously.

“Like the old saying goes – ‘If it doesn’t look quite right – it probably isn’t’ – and the police would like to know about it,” she said.

“We’re encouraging members of the public who live or work in a rural setting around Monmouthshire, to collect an ‘Eyes and Ears’ booklet from their local police station. The scheme is an aide memoir – a little booklet to keep with you in your vehicle.

“It contains handy hints on collecting the right information: such as time, location, vehicle type and colour, index number, description of suspicious person etc.

“If something is sighted which is deemed suspicious activity the booklet is a useful tool to note down all the relevant and important information. It also contains the relevant numbers for the police contact centre.

“We would stress, however, that if a crime is taking place – then to call 999 – but still use the booklet as a tool to provide all the important information to the police 999 operator.”