The termination of red light cameras in one major U.S. city has the company behind them seeing red.

Xerox is suing the city of Cleveland for ending its three-year contract to use the traffic cameras -- claiming the company is owed money because the city backed out early, violating the terms of the agreement.

"The city selected Xerox as its automated enforcement vendor in a competitive bid process that required Xerox to incur millions of dollars of upfront expense to implement the city’s automated enforcement program," Xerox said in a statement to FoxNews.com Thursday. 

"The resulting contract between the city and Xerox requires the city to pay cancellation fees in the event of an early termination," the company said. "The city has refused to meet its clear contract obligations and has declined to negotiate despite substantial good faith efforts by Xerox over many months to reach a solution without litigation.

"Unfortunately, this left Xerox with no reasonable choice but to file this lawsuit," the company added. 

The red light cameras and speed cameras were at first favored by city officials -- bringing in $9 million in revenue -- but residents later voted by a 78 percent margin to ban the use of them in 2014.

The lawsuit, which was filed in late August, does not specify how much money the company is seeking. The complaint claims the city had 29 months left to go in the contract and also notes the city has a "surplus" of more than $9 million from traffic camera revenue, according to Cleveland.com.

Xerox won its contract with the city in June 2013. The contract was set to expire on June 1, 2017.

Dan Williians, a spokesman for Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, told FoxNews.com Thursday the city cannot comment on matters involving pending litigation. 

Last month, however, the city provided to Cleveland.com a copy of an amendment to the Xerox contract -- penned in August 2013 -- that says the contract would be terminated should a state or federal law be enacted to bar the use of cameras, according to the website.

Red light cameras have been long been controversial in cities across the U.S. Advocates of the system claim it makes the roads safer because drivers are more conscious of running red lights, while critics say the cameras are simply money-making machines for towns and cities and often unreliable.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Dan Polster and Cleveland officials must respond to the suit by Oct. 26, the newspaper.com reported. 

FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin contributed to this report.