WILTON – In the past few weeks, Town Manager Peter Nielsen joked with police Chief Wayne Gallant that the town was campaigning against him in his bid to become Oxford County sheriff.

His officers said they’d go vote against him, if they could, to bring him down.

He won the race, and now many Wilton officials and police officers are unhappy, department secretary Karen Flagg said Wednesday.

“We’re devastated,” Flagg said. “You know, I’m tickled to death he won. But like everyone says, he made such a change over here.”

Gallant came on as police chief in February 2005 and has become known for cleaning up a department with serious problems.

A Chiefs of Police Association evaluation slammed the department in 2005 for everything from poor record keeping to biased policing to having a bad reputation in the community.

Gallant was brought in to fix those problems, and the general consensus is that he did a marvelous job.

“I felt he was a first-rate police chief,” selectmen’s Chairman Rodney Hall said.

“The town is going to be suffering for a while before they can find a replacement of his caliber,” said officer Terry Warren, a longtime department member.

Much of what Gallant changed was administrative, record-keeping things. He also took a few officers under his wing, Warren said, and taught them things about policing they didn’t know.

He shook up officers’ beats, got the department up-to-date computers, radios, firearms and an audio-video interrogation room.

“We’ve had some great changes,” Gallant said, looking back. “We changed how we look and appear.”

“There (were) a lot of shortcomings, and a lot of the paperwork and policies weren’t there. I was very busy. It’s a great community,” he said.

That community needs to find a new chief, and soon, Nielsen said. Gallant will step down in weeks. He starts work as Oxford County’s sheriff in January.

Selectmen voted last week to authorize Nielsen to advertise for a new chief immediately if Gallant won the election. “We’re going to look for his clone, I guess,” Nielsen said.

Most everybody liked him, Warren said – even many of those the chief “took under his wing.”

“He’s very personable. He can sell snow to an Eskimo,” Warren said. Finding a good replacement will be hard, he added. “He was direct, honest, above-board, and he’s been handling all our investigations of large cases,” Warren said.

Gallant hopes to have a hand in finding his replacement. He hopes whoever replaces him, will be committed to getting the officers more training. Every department needs that, he said.

Of all the people in town rooting for him to lose, Gallant was circumspect.

“I’ve heard people say that here in Wilton. I guess that shows I’ve done my job there; people appreciate me.”

Folks in the department are sad to see him go, Warren said. “The majority is real, real happy with him.” For now, they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, he said.

“I’m hoping we’ll have some input in his replacement. If we can get another one like him it’d be fine, but the same type of person’s going to be hard to find.”