Community prosecution, although a departure from a traditional prosecution model, is not a new "program." Rather, it is a philosophy. The philosophy emerged from a recognition that the lack of direct involvement by prosecutors in the community, when combined with an arrest-generated, case-oriented approach, produced an inefficient allocation of criminal justice resources in Montgomery County. To address this situation, effective July 6, 1999, the entire prosecutor's office staff was reorganized according to geographical lines. All attorneys, while maintaining their centrally located office, are now assigned to one of the five police districts, with staffing proportionate to the number of cases in each of the districts. Each team also includes attorneys who specialize, respectively, in juvenile crime, family violence, and economic crime. Prosecutors handle cases only in their districts, which produces more effective individual case prosecution within specific beats in the police district. Each of the five team leaders sits on the police-citizen advisory board for the district. A prosecutor from each team acts as a liaison with each police beat and each of the more than 200 schools in the community. Prosecutors' familiarity with the needs and crime problems of a given geographical district, developed in consultation with community leaders and police, enables them to solve problems in partnership with the community. Issues in evaluating the effectiveness of community prosecution are discussed.