He is Saguru Hakuba's father and holds the highest police rank as Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. His younger brother[1] owned the Hakuba Research Center, a research laboratory in Ekoda. He's told his son all about the son of the chief of the Osaka Police, saying Heiji Hattori were a very intuitive detective.
Personality
Hakuba is a humoristic man, always happy, and takes things a bit without serious, like Kaitou Kid, when he met Nakamori and just patted him laughing. His son seems somewhat embarrassed by this reckless behavior, but he has to bear it.
Conan suspected Hakuba, his senior deputy Toshio Moroboshi, and four high policemen. He is the man above the MPD, the one with four stars as insignia, but without mustaches. The official trailer introduced Toshiro Odagiri and other policemen, but Conan's voice defined him Superintendent General, and not Chief superintendent.
Name origin
The surname kanji means "white horse". As a nod to the family name, his family seems to use the horse as its emblem. His brother's laboratory has a horse on its facade as well.
Different looks
Magic Kaito (episode 7).
Magic Kaito 1412 (episode 4).
Trivia
His character design is the same used for Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police in episode 155 of the anime Lupin III: Part II, a source of inspiration for Detective Conan.
References
^In the Japanese manga, when Saguru talks about his uncle, it's written with "叔父" (Oji,lit."parent's younger brother"?). His wife is British, then he can't be his brother-in-law.