I think it would not be easy to find the right word to this question without inflaming opinion. Some people might say that Americans are less submissive than Europeans, but then that sounds like an insult to Europeans, but I think that by definition the US is less inclined to trust authority figures because of the rebellion against the 'tyrannical authority' of the UK.
Primarily though this mistrust is focused towards governance rather than law enforcement, the average American is likely to be more sympathetic towards a policeman than a politician, and most presidents are generally distrusted by whoever has the opposing viewpoint, sometimes to extremes.
Since the 1960s though, distrust of the police has increased, not just in the US but UK too, I think it started as an offshoot of the distrust of authoritarian figures, with the youth movement and it spread to their children and onwards. The police became seen less as your local neighbourhood 'Bobby' (or Officer McFriendly in the US) and more as the military arm of 'the establishment', the clashes between police/the Guard and anti-war protesters in the late sixties probably helped cement that reputation, especially with things like the Kent State shootings.
From there, really, the distrust of the police continued, with the polices reputation being damaged by incidents with the black community in the US and in the UK with corruption scandals and not really recovering from it.
It's a pity really, since it's the minority that ruin it for the majority, but in the media these days it's the minority who are focused on, to the detriment of the majority. That being said, if there wasn't some focus on the rotton parts then they'd be getting away with it, but it's finding the balance between getting rid of corruption within the force but not discrediting the entire force whilst doing so.
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