When is there too much bureacratic ass covering?

Where I work, there is an institutional review board that looks at every data gathering effort to make sure no people are hurt. This has some interesting results. You can not send students out on the streets to knock on doors or to interview folks on the street, because the streets are dangerous, the student might get hurt, and the University would be liable.

Every class where students do any data gathering at all, even interviewing each other, must file an application with the IRB, in order to be granted the exemption from filing the application.

There’s bureacracy everywhere, and much of it is to protect people, by making sure the organization doesn’t make mistakes. CYA. But it starts to clog up the system, and slow things down.

At what point is bureacracy counter-productive? What’s more important—protecting people from harm, by rubberizing the playgrounds so pain does not become a teacher, or the freedom to explore, learn more, but also break an arm or a leg?