The introduction shows the role and importance of physical training in improving the service and operational activities of police officers. The article reveals the problem of using combat fighting techniques for cadets and students of educational organisations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, their development and application in further service in the practical internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation, and also notes that combat fighting techniques are one of the main components of the service and operational activities of policemen in hand-to-hand combat with offenders. Consequently, this is a kind of combat in which both firearms and cold weapons are used, as well as improvised means and martial arts without weapons. These techniques constitute the basic complex of self-defense at close range with the help of preemptive strikes to enhance the activities of police officers and other law enforcement agencies in order to protect civilians. In the process of discussing the research results, recommendations were developed for the protection of the civilian population from criminal arbitrariness, based on the analysis; it was proposed to rename the section «Combat fighting techniques» to «Hand-to-hand combat». The results of the study showed that the cadets are well-prepared in terms of mastering the legal foundations for the use of combat fighting techniques; they study these techniques more qualitatively than poorly trained officials and perform them with an «excellent» rating. In addition, fighting techniques of wrestling are an integral part of self-defense. It is shown that for a better and deeper mastering techniques studied within the framework of this discipline, an official of the internal affairs bodies must first at least theoretically study the system of self-defense, and then, enriched with knowledge, practically learn the basic combat techniques. In conclusion, it was noted that hand-to-hand combat contributes to the development and improvement of physical qualities and the effective implementation of operational and service tasks. It is recommended that physical culture and sports societies organize courses for the general population on the study of self-defense techniques.