The East Area Command Unit (EACU) will be one of the first London police forces to use iPads and iPhones to record information from crime scenes.

Officers in Redbridge, Havering and Barking and Dagenham, which comprise the EACU, will start using the tablets from late October.

Ch Supt Jason Gwillim, head of police in the tri-borough area, explained the technological advances.

“Officers will put their initial information from a crime, straight into the iPad or iPhone and that will go straight onto the server,” he said.

“At the moment they write all of the details down in a pad, come back to the station and type it into a computer.

“This will save time, and give better resources to the commanders.”

It means after the officers input the data, they can then start investigating in the field or head to the next call.

Ch Supt Gwillim said the EACU was one of the trial areas for the scheme.