San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has called on the police department to explain its use of tear gas and rubber bullets after widespread criticism of law enforcement tactics during protests against police brutality in recent days.

In a meeting Tuesday, the city council will review a new proposal asking the San Jose Police Department to report its criteria for crowd control methods — including use of riot gear, batons, flash-bangs and projectiles — and examine, in detail, why those methods were used against crowds since San Jose’s first protest on May 29.

“There have been a lot of concerns locally about when police have used tear gas, when they’ve used rubber bullets, whether or not there was an excessive use of force,” Liccardo said in a Facebook Live address Friday morning, adding, “What were the circumstances that the police felt justified their use of force in those cases?”

The proposal would require that the department report back the specific circumstances that prompted those methods during the protests, including an estimated number of rounds discharged in crowds over the past week, and evaluate the risks and drawbacks of the projectiles, like hitting people other than the intended targets.

At the same time, the department would have to answer to a half-dozen or so video clips that “have raised substantial public concern” over use-of-force, the memo adds. Several videos sparked outrage this week from public officials and protesters alike, including one showing a police motorcycle hitting a fleeing man Sunday in downtown San Jose, and another in which an officer shouted “Let’s get this motherf—er” and “Shut up, bitch,” at protesters Friday. That officer has since been pulled from street duty.

When contacted by this news organization, a department official said that many of the proposal’s required reviews are already underway.

In a Thursday press conference, Police Chief Eddie Garcia defended the department’s tactics, arguing that crowds provoked and attacked officers to the extent that a police captain felt he had “stepped into a war zone.”

“I’m not defending every single incident that happened in the face of chaos, and we will look into every complaint,” Garcia said. “But the impetus to use that force to begin with was because there must have been an act of violence against a police officer.”

Between Friday and Tuesday, as protests swept across the Bay Area and the nation after the police killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd, San Jose police arrested 180 people, while the department had received more than 1,200 citizen complaints related to the protests. The Office of the Independent Police Auditor had meanwhile received more than 500.

If approved, the mayor’s proposal would also require the police department to seek community feedback surrounding potential reforms and return in August with ballot language to expand the authority of the Independent Police Authority.

Vice Mayor Chappie Jones, who signed onto the memo alongside Councilmembers Raul Peralez, Lan Diep and Magdelena Carrasco, said in a statement that he recognizes “the difficult situation that our police officers are put in every time they answer the call to protect people and property during a protest.”

“I also recognize that our residents who wish to express their First Amendment rights should also be protected from harm,” he added.

Staff writers Robert Salonga and Maggie Angst contributed to this report.