Tourists visit the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macao, on May 3, 2021. (Photo: Xinhua)

The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) maintained a stable and sound security situation in the first half of 2021, showed a report issued Thursday by the security division of the SAR government.

Police investigated a total of 5,915 criminal cases in the first half of this year, increasing 26.1 percent from the same period of 2020, but still obviously lower than the number in the same period of 2019 prior to the COVID-19 epidemic, showed the report.

In the mean time, the number of violent crimes did not increase and the number of serious violence cases continued to remain low, indicating that the SAR's security situation in the first half of the year was stable and sound.

The security authority of the SAR government attributed the rise in the number of overall crimes year on year to a growing number of visitors, an increase of outdoor activities for local residents and the enhanced efforts by the police on crime crackdowns.

The authority vowed to further develop smart policing in Macao and step up information exchange and cooperation with police in neighboring areas.