King City considers a part-time police department as it searches for a new chief.

A national conversation on issues of race and police brutality took a tragic turn in Brooklyn last week when a gunman bent on revenge ambushed and killed two officers.

But another racially charged matter of police corruption shook King City, months before national protests got going in earnest. Early on Feb. 25, the acting police chief and his brother, the retired chief and four police officers were arrested. Three were charged in connection to an alleged car-towing scheme in which officers targeted poor Mexican immigrants, impounded their vehicles, and kept some.

The city is slowly rebuilding its police department. The application period to be the next chief is closed.

“The bigger picture is, how much does the public trust our existing police force?” Mayor Robert Cullen says. “The situation we’re in now is because over time, we lost the public’s trust.”

Regaining that trust, Cullen says, might be done by piecing together a new police force: “In that case we have to ask ourselves, can that be done?”

Maybe not. One alternative is extending an agreement with the sheriff’s office, currently working night shifts under a six-month contract.

“Night coverage by the sheriff’s office is going extremely well, better than I could’ve imagined,” Cullen says. “We have the obligation to review all potential scenarios. Everything’s on the table.”

When City Council approved a $350,000 contract for night patrol from the sheriff’s office on July 8, it was expected to last only six months.

“It is anticipated that at the end of the contract period, the city will have a permanent police chief on board and the existing vacancies within the police department will be filled,” City Manager Michael Powers wrote in a report to City Council.

A four-person advisory committee, appointed by Powers July 9, will review chief applications. An offer is expected by March.