James A. Perrotti will be a police chief for at least a little longer.

Just days after formally retiring from his post as Yale Police Chief, Perrotti has returned to work, but not at Yale, or even in New Haven. On Thursday, he started as interim police chief at Boston College.

Still, Perrotti says he does not expect to stay there long.

“The opportunity just came up and it was something I wanted to do,” Perrotti said in an e-mail to the News. “Retirement will have to wait a couple months!”

Perrotti had spent 37 years as a YPD officer, the last 12 as chief. He served as chief during the on-campus murders of two Yale students, one of which still has no suspects.

When he announced his departure from Yale in March, Yale administrators said Perrotti’s tenure had transformed the department and the University by improving the technology, training and professionalism of the YPD.

Perrotti is taking over the Boston College Police Department as long-time Chief Robert Morse departs. As a veteran chief, Perrotti will help to fill the vacuum caused by Morse’s departure. Perrotti caused a similar vacuum himself at Yale by leaving. That vacuum that has been filled, on an interim basis, by former New Haven Police Chief James Lewis, who takes the helm of the YPD this month.