Or, they actually were thought to be useful for kidnappings and this was an honest attempt. Perhaps largely security theatre, I could imagine there have been a handful of cases where this was enough.
The ever growing mistrust in government and society will become a self fulfilling promise. I worry about our future when no good and honest talent wants to work for the greater good at reduced pay.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085136/
My parents had me and my siblings watch that movie with them - it is still unsettling to me thinking about it.
And then the FBI contacted my school and provided a voluntary program for parents to have their children fingerprinted. From my memory 95%+ of kids all lined up in my school and got fingerprinted to "protect them from kidnapping".
It honestly seems surreal - looking back it sure seems like a black ops campaign to get biometric data on a large portion of the U.S. youth population.