One of the NYPD’s highest ranking officers is hanging up his badge after more than four decades on the force.

Chief of Patrol Robert Gianelli will step down on Feb. 28, just shy of his 63rd birthday, when department rules say an officer must retire.

Gianelli’s departure comes less than a year after he locked horns with Commissioner Ray Kelly over an order that forced officers on desk duty to walk the beat.

Kelly canceled the order after just two weeks.

The commissioner was reportedly angry that he wasn’t told of the decision before Gianelli implemented it, and stripped the chief of his command of the Special Operations Division. The program was later put back into effect.