CHICAGO  The authorities arrested a former Chicago police commander at his Florida home on Tuesday and charged him in a police brutality scandal that contributed to the emptying of Illinois’ death row and that continues to resonate as one of the most racially charged chapters in the city’s history.

The activities of the former commander, Jon Burge, 60, have been the subject of speculation for decades as scores of criminal suspects, many poor and black, have come forward saying they were routinely brutalized by Mr. Burge and the mostly white officers under his command on the South Side in the 1980s.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said at a news conference that Mr. Burge “lied and impeded court proceedings” in 2003 when he provided false written answers to questions in a civil lawsuit that claimed he and other officers had abused inmates.

According to the indictment, Mr. Burge “well knew” he had participated in and was aware of “such events involving the abuse or torture of people in custody,” including wrapping inmates’ heads in plastic to make them feel as if they were suffocating.