Inspector Juzo Megure is a veteran police officer who serves as a Police Inspector in Division 1 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. His surname is a homage to Jules Maigret, the famous fictional French detective created by Georges Simenon. In the early days of his career, Megure was involved in a case that would prove to be a defining moment in his life. While investigating a series of hit-and-run incidents, he met a woman named Midori. When she volunteered to act as a decoy to catch the culprit, Megure pushed her out of the way of an oncoming car, sustaining a deep gash on his head. To hide the resulting scar and his own self-consciousness about the incident, he has since worn a hat almost constantly in public. Midori survived the attack, and the two eventually married.

Throughout his years on the force, Megure formed a strong professional friendship with the celebrated mystery novelist Yusaku Kudo, often consulting him on challenging cases. It was on these occasions that Yusaku would bring along his young son, Shinichi, allowing the boy to observe and learn the methods of a master detective.

As an officer, Inspector Megure is characterized by a strong sense of justice and a deep, paternal care for his subordinates. He is a capable and experienced investigator, though his thinking can sometimes be rigid and overly conservative, making him less adaptable than the brilliant minds he often encounters. He has a short temper and is known for erupting in loud shouts when an investigation hits a snag or when his patience is tested. He also demonstrates a remarkable tolerance for physical pain, having been shown to withstand serious injuries in the line of duty.

Megure’s primary role is that of the commanding officer at crime scenes, where he is almost always present to lead investigations, interview suspects, and manage his team of detectives, which includes Wataru Takagi, Miwako Sato, Ninzaburo Shiratori, and Kazunobu Chiba. He holds a complicated view of private detective Kogoro Mouri, who was once his subordinate when they both served in the same district. Megure has little respect for Kogoro's usual, bumbling demeanor and has come to regard him as a jinx, grumbling that murders seem to occur wherever Kogoro appears. This perception is a running theme, though Megure's opinion has become more conflicted since Kogoro gained fame as the Sleeping Kogoro, a title he secretly owes to Conan Edogawa's deductions.

While Megure deeply respects the intellect of the missing high school detective Shinichi Kudo, regularly lamenting that cases would be simpler if Kudo were still around, he tends to view Shinichi’s transformed self, Conan Edogawa, as little more than a pesky child who only gets in the way. He is largely oblivious to Conan’s frequent, subtle hints about the truth, a fact that allows the young detective to operate under the guise of passing along messages from Shinichi via telephone.

Inspector Megure experiences relatively little personal development, remaining a constant and steadfast figure of authority throughout the series. His most notable backstory, concerning his wife and his hat, is revealed in a dedicated flashback, but this serves to explain a long-standing character trait rather than to show growth. A lighter aspect of his character is his notable lack of aptitude with modern technology, such as computers, and his difficulty with the English language. In some anime-exclusive stories, he also displays a habit of lecturing culprits on the immorality of their actions, a behavior less common in the original manga.