In addition to what TXLobo said, the employment information serves another purpose. It allows the cops to know where to find you when you don't pay the ticket. A little known fact is that you cannot go into a person's house to arrest them on class C misdemeanors (I would need to check but I think this applies to all misdemeanor warrants). You can go into their work place to arrest them though, so which set of contact info is better for the collection agency? And the threat of being embarrassed at work by being arrested is a great enhancement when the city does their "courtesy" calls before the ticket roundups.The Annoyed Man wrote:What's with this trend in asking for your work information and phone number? Why on earth would a LEO writing you up for a common traffic citation need that particular piece of information?
As for the bad guys lying, it is amazing how often they tell the truth on tickets and things like that. One of the advantages of the computer cross referencing that TxLobo mentioned is that bad guys are also victims of crimes at times. They almost always tell the truth when they are the victim or have no fear of being arrested at that time. Get the info when you can, it can serve as a lead later on when you need it.