Chief O'Hara was a police officer for Gotham City until he was murdered by the hangman killer in Dark Victory. He was also a commonly reoccurring character in the 1960's Batman show.

In the Adam West television series, Chief O'Hara was shown to be quite competent at the ordinary dealings of his position as both police officer and chief of police but wholly out of his depths when dealing with the arch-criminals that Batman and Robin fought and often more than a little clueless about how to comprehend anything that did conform to his "1950s" worldview. Although the character was clearly there as comic relief, he was also depicted as brave, dedicated, eager to help and unafraid to openly demonstrate joy and sadness. More than once, he confronted arch-criminals without a second thought for his safety, and he always seemed to be successful at organizing the police officers under his command while still functioning as a source of comedy in the series.