Actually, LE is following the gold standard in identifications by not asking the witnesses to agree on a photo.
Human memory is malleable. Research shows that picking out a photo or creating a sketch of a perp solidifies that particular image in the witness's mind. There has been a bunch or research done on photo and actual lineups, for instance. One simple, easy to execute change that increases the accuracy of witness IDs by a considerable percentage is to present each photo or person in the lineup separately.
Research shows that when a group of photos or persons are presented, the witness tends to pick out the person in the group who most closely resembles the person they saw. When the photos or persons are presented individually, the witness only has their own memory to compare with, making for a much more accurate ID.
This creates a huge investigative problem; for instance, if the witness starts out saying "light coloured" and with encouragement progresses to saying "white" then perps known to own a light blue vehicle will tend to be eliminated. And in court, of course, such a discrepancy can be a huge problem for the prosecution. In reality, what the witness saw was a light blue vehicle in the shadow of a building and the change of light conditions fooled their eye.
As that story illustrates, it's far better to get too many tips than it is to have someone withhold information because they assume someone else turned in the same information or because their memory differs in detail from information already released.
So, in Lyric and Elizabeth's case, what if someone remembers seeing a vehicle on Maiden Lane but in their memory, it was a white full sized van? If they see a photo of an SUV, they may decide that what they saw wasn't relevant or that they were mistaken.
Tangential comment: my 17 year old full sized van just went into a coma a few weeks ago. I gave it to a friend who has been good to us and he's gotten it running again, figures it has another 150K miles in it. He does his own vehicle work (is a NASCAR mechanic for fun), so had the skill to track down the wiring short without paying a small fortune.
My father is in love with his 20+ year old Mazda and thinks it is the perfect car.
My vet is still driving and babying the BMW she was given as a high school graduation present... that was more than 30 years ago.
None of us looked particularly out of place in older vehicles. It's not like California, where you see older vehicles that look pristine, almost like they've been restored but it's not unusual to see an elderly vehicle still on the road, wrinkles, age spots and all.
It is true that midwestern winters are hard on vehicles but it is also true that a lot of Iowans are frugal at heart and when they buy a new vehicle, they intend to get the full 300,000 miles out of it. In fact, that van was the first time I ever let go of a vehicle with less than 200K miles on it.