Great discussion topic!
I'll reference a different episode of "The Shield" to back that up. Theres an episode where this pervert has kidnapped a little girl and has her locked away in an unknown location. He won't admit that he has her, but they KNOW he does. To make matters worse, they have to get to her in a hurry or she will die, they know this as well. The Captain, determined to do things the legal way, tries to coerce the information out of the suspect with no success. Finally, as a last ditch effort, they send Nick in to try to get the information anyway possible. I think he pretty much beats it out of the guy but he finally does get the location and they save the girl just in time. You'd have to see the episode to really appreciate how intimidating he can be. It's a really great episode.
In the example above, stepping outside the law was the only way to save an innocent life. The problem with the whole thing is that when you allow someone to step outside the law, you have to trust that they will not abuse it. Another good movie to watch is "Training Day" starring Denzel Washington. This movie will show what happens when someone abuses that power.
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Finally, if you are designing a system based on a set of rules or ideals and you don't allow for breaking those rules/ideals, is your system doomed to fail?
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If the arguments to those rules are subject to change, then yes, the system will fail. A static system in a dynamic enviroment will not succeed.