I would say it is an example of so-called political correctness where the reporter is afraid to say the police are looking for a person of brownness (or should that be blackness?).
On a wider note, it is another example of modern sloppiness in the English language where terms are used for things which they don't actually mean - such as black, Islamophobic, Semitic etc. - resulting in people not knowing what was actually meant. It's safer that way.